While Illinois Democrats have been cracking down on legal gun ownership by criminalizing basic aspects of our Second Amendment rights, they've also been "reforming" the state's criminal justice system in ways that allow judges and prosecutors to cut violent offenders a break when they show up in court... or even if they don't show up at all.
On Saturday morning, 26-year-old Alphanso Talley allegedly shot and killed a Chicago police office and gravely wounded another at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago. According to CWB Chicago, Talley is a seven-time felon with two other pending cases who was already wanted for violating conditions of his parole when he was taken into custody for questioning after an armed robbery at a Family Dollar store earlier Saturday.
As Talley had done upon being arrested at least three times since 2017, he claimed to need medical assistance and CPD summoned an ambulance that took him to Swedish Hospital.
Endeavor Health, which operates the hospital, said on Twitter that the suspect was wanded with a metal detector upon arrival per the hospital’s public safety weapon detection protocols and that he was escorted by law enforcement at all times.
Roughly two hours after they arrived, Talley obtained a firearm — exactly how is not known — 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, CPD Supt. Larry Snelling said on Saturday afternoon.
Talley had been wanted for more than a month after failing to show up for a court hearing related to two pending cases involving charges of armed carjacking and armed robbery cases. CWB Chicago reports that Talley is also listed as a probation absconder by the Illinois Department of Corrections for failing to abide by the terms of his probation in a previous incident that involved possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated battery of correctional officers at the Cook County jail.
Talley's criminal history dates back to at least 2017, when he pled guilty to four counts of armed robbery (including one incident on the "gun-free" Chicago transit system) and was sentenced to seven years. By 2021, however, he was already a free man, though he ended up back behind bars after he was allegedly caught with a gun. A grand jury indicted him as a habitual offender, but then-Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx approved a plea deal to lesser charges and a three-year sentence.
Less than a year after he entered that plea, Illinois State Police troopers arrested Talley for leading them on a lengthy chase in a stolen car, according to court records. He once again feigned the need for medical assistance so he could go to a hospital, law enforcement sources said.
Talley remained in jail for a year after state troopers arrested him, picking up another felony along the way for attacking a Cook County jail correctional officer, until Judge John Lyke denied a state petition to continue Talley’s detention and released him on electronic monitoring in the fall of 2024, court records show.
Just a few months later Talley was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery, and he stopped showing up for his court cases as well. In April, 2025 he was busted for another alleged carjacking, but despite the litany of pending cases and his history of not abiding by the terms of his release, a judge freed him in December, 2025 after once again placing him on electronic monitoring.
A month later, Talley pleaded guilty to the stolen vehicle and battery charges, receiving concurrent sentences of four- and three years from Lyke. But, with the state’s standard 50% sentence reduction and credit for time spent wearing an ankle monitor and in jail, Talley entered and exited Illinois Department of Corrections custody within a few hours on January 9 and then went home on electronic monitoring again, records show.
Yep, under Illinois law wearing an electronic monitor actually counts the same as being behind bars when factoring in credit for time served while awaiting trial.
In early March Talley let the battery on his monitor die, and two days later a judge issued an arrest warrant that was still active when he was taken into custody on Saturday.
The state of Illinois had multiple opportunities to address Talley's prolific criminal activities, but each and every time prosecutors instead cut him a deal or judges allowed him to walk free with the promise that he'd show up for future court dates. The 26-year-old should have been sitting in a downstate prison on Saturday morning, and if Illinois Democrats were as tough on violent offenders as they are on lawful gun owners, Officer John Bartholomew might be alive today and his partner might not be fighting for his life.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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