Chicago Officer’s Killing Spurs Review Of Hospital Search And Screening Steps: Report

This is the second time a shooting has happened at an Endeavor Health hospital in under a year, the first being in Evanston.

By Rachel Barnes, Patch Staff

May 5, 2026 4:08 pm CDT

EVANSTON, IL — A recent shooting at a Chicago hospital that left a police officer dead was the second shooting at an Endeavor hospital in less than a year, the first being in Evanston.

The April 25 shooting at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital that killed Chicago police Officer John Bartholomew, 38, and critically wounded his partner is raising questions about how a detainee brought a gun into the hospital, according to WBEZ’s report on the shooting.

Prosecutors accuse Alphanso Talley, 26, of pulling a 10 mm handgun from under a blanket in a CT scan room after he was arrested in a dollar store robbery and taken to the hospital after saying he had swallowed drugs, WBEZ reported. Prosecutors said officers searched Talley after his arrest and found stolen cash, but no gun.

WBEZ reported that Chicago Police Department policy calls for at least two searches in that scenario, including one before a detainee is taken to a hospital, though it remains unclear whether Talley was patted down again at Swedish. Endeavor Health previously said Talley “was wanded upon arrival,” according to WBEZ.

In the Evanston Incident, which took place at Evanston Hospital on June 5, 2025, 28-year-old Christian Haywood was voluntarily brought in by Evanston's Crisis Alternative Response (C.A.R.E) team.

At the hospital, the man was brought into an exam room, where he produced a gun from his backpack and shot at a security officer. Police said Haywood had two guns in his bag at the hospital.

It is unclear if the man was searched by the C.A.R.E. team or by hospital security before he was admitted into the building.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said this week it is reviewing the shooting as the state’s hospital licensing agency, WBEZ reported. Ashley Ditta, president-elect of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, told WBEZ, “It would be preferable that no patient who is on a watch of any sort — whether it’s homicidal, suicidal or if they’re in [police] custody — that they’re ever changing alone, that someone has eyes on them at all times.”