On April 25, two Chicago police officers were shot at Swedish Hospital on the city's north side. One of those officers, 38-year-old John Bartholomew, died on Saturday as a result of those injuries. The other officer, a 57-year-old, was gravely wounded and was listed in critical condition. The suspect was taken to the hospital for "observation" after he was arrested for robbery. It's been reported that the suspect was able to get a gun from one of the officers and that's the weapon he used in the shooting.
It turns out that, once again, Chicago's soft-on-crime policies led to the death of an innocent person. The suspect has a lengthy criminal history and was reportedly an electronic monitoring escapee, absconded from parole, and had pending cases for armed robbery and armed carjacking. As of yesterday, he's not been charged in the shooting, which is why he's not being named yet.
Sources: The man who killed a Chicago cop and gravely wounded the officer’s partner:
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) April 26, 2026
• Is an electronic monitoring escapee
• Is a parole absconder
• Has armed robbery and armed carjacking cases pendinghttps://t.co/ExuGFWyUr7
The suspect has not been charged with the shootings, and CWB Chicago, which has mentioned him in three stories since 2017, is not identifying him by name for that reason. But sources at multiple levels of government confirmed he is the individual in custody.
The events leading up to Saturday’s shooting follow a years-long trail through Cook County’s court system, one marked by repeated arrests, judicial decisions that kept the man out of jail, and a complete failure to locate a known, violent criminal who not only went missing from electronic monitoring but failed to abide by parole conditions.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday, the man is believed to have robbed a Family Dollar store at 3239 West Lawrence Avenue in Albany Park at gunpoint, according to a CPD report. Officers tracked him using a GPS device hidden in the stolen proceeds, arrested him nearby about 20 minutes later, and — as he had done in a previous arrest, according to court records — he claimed he needed medical attention. Bartholomew and his partner accompanied him to Swedish Hospital.
Roughly two hours after they arrived, the man obtained a firearm, shot the officers, then ran from the hospital, officials said. He was arrested shortly after noon in the 2600 block of West Carmen Avenue, according to witnesses. Police recovered a firearm at the scene, a third weapon beyond the officers’ sidearms, Snelling said.
CWB Chicago first reported on the suspect in 2017 after he attacked two men in Boystown and robbed three more on the Red Line. He was given four seven-year concurrent sentences for those crimes.
But in 2021, he was sentenced to three years for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He once again got out and, in 2023, was arrested again for fleeing police and possessing a stolen vehicle. He was also charged with battering correctional officers while in jail.
In 2024, Judge John Lyke said the suspect could be released on an ankle monitor pending trial. Three months later, the monitoring was removed, and the suspect stopped showing up for court three months after its removal. A failure to appear warrant was issued for his arrest, and he reportedly carjacked a 25-year-old woman at gunpoint before using the vehicle to rob another man at gunpoint.
He was arrested and told police he swallowed bags of crack cocaine so he could go to the hospital, according to CWB Chicago.
Once again, in December of last year, Judge Lyke placed him on electronic monitoring despite having four pending felony cases. In January, the suspect pled guilty to the charges of possessing a stolen vehicle and aggravated battery of a peace officer. He was sentenced to four years and three years concurrently by Judge Lyke. But with credit for time spent in jail and monitoring, and Illinois' ridiculous 50 percent sentencing reduction, the suspect walked out of prison the next day.
The suspect was then granted permission to attend classes at Truman College for several hours each day. For reasons that are unclear, prosecutors filed a petition to revoke his pretrial release in February, and in March, the suspect did not show up for court.
According to CWB Chicago, officers said the suspect had left home without permission on March 8, and returned the morning of March 9, and then his ankle monitor died so the suspect's whereabouts were "unknown." Judge Lyke then issued the arrest warrant, which was still active this weekend when the suspect was arrested for robbery and went on to murder a Chicago police officer and gravely injure another.