Chicago Police Miss Loaded Guns on Two Suspects in Weeks Since Officer's Killing at Swedish Hospital

Chicago police officers failed to find loaded handguns on two people they arrested and searched in the months following the fatal shooting of an officer at Swedish Hospital, according to department records reviewed by reporters.

In June, officers arrested a 25-year-old man on suspicion of gambling and trespassing in Wentworth Gardens. They inventoried a pair of green dice as his only property. Hours later, after the man had already been photographed and fingerprinted in the 9th District station's lockup, a watch commander reported that staff conducted another search and found a loaded semi-automatic pistol.

In a second case late last month, 7th District officers arrested a 23-year-old man in Englewood and allegedly seized 15 grams of suspected cannabis from him. He sat in police custody for more than eight hours. It wasn't until he was transferred to Cook County Jail that staff there found a Taurus handgun tucked in his waistband, loaded with 13 rounds including one in the chamber.

Both incidents happened after the April 25 shooting at Swedish Hospital in Lincoln Square, where prosecutors say Alphanso Talley, 27, of Joliet, shot and killed Officer John Bartholomew and seriously wounded his partner, Nelson Crespo. Talley had been arrested earlier that morning on suspicion of armed robbery. Police have not explained how he was able to conceal a handgun through the arrest and booking process before the shooting. Talley is awaiting trial on murder charges.

Bartholomew, 38, was remembered by hundreds of mourners at a service in May as a family man who loved his job. His killing raised questions about how officers search people taken into custody, a step meant to catch weapons before a suspect is placed in a lockup or jail cell.

A Chicago Police Department spokesperson said all three cases, including the one connected to Bartholomew's death, are under investigation by the department's internal affairs division. The spokesperson declined to answer questions about how the guns went undetected or to describe the department's current training and policies for searching people in custody.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the city's independent police oversight agency, also investigates cases classified as "failure to properly search," a violation that can lead to recommendations for written reprimands or suspensions against the officers involved.

A case from July 2020 shows how that review process has worked in the past, even when the consequences turned violent. On July 30 of that year, officers Vincent Caramusa and Pawel Wiszowaty responded to a report of a stolen Porsche in the 4800 block of West North Avenue in Austin. They arrested Lovelle Jordan of Maywood after seeing him get into the car and start it.

Body camera footage and a Civilian Office of Police Accountability report describe a prolonged struggle during the arrest. The officers handcuffed Jordan behind his back, despite his objections that he had skin grafts, and performed what they called a protective pat-down while he resisted and repeatedly cried out in pain. Wiszowaty told investigators he searched Jordan's back, thighs, waistband, arms and underarm area, and later searched his legs and groin area after standing him up against a patrol vehicle.

The officers say they recovered narcotics, 14 stolen credit cards, keys, cash and two cellphones during the search, and that Jordan told them repeatedly that he did not have a gun. Both officers later said they believed the search was thorough and that a strip search would have required a supervisor's approval.

Jordan was taken from the scene by Officer Jason Cloherty to the 25th District station, where he shot Cloherty with a gun that had gone undetected through the earlier search, according to the accountability office's report. The 2020 case is one of the few instances in which the department's handling of a failed search, including any discipline, became public record, even though the search failure ended with an officer shot.

The two newer cases have not gone through the full accountability process, and it's not yet clear what discipline, if any, the officers involved might face. Internal affairs investigations typically take months to complete, and the police department has not released the names of the officers who conducted the June and July searches.

In both the June and July cases, the guns were found only after officers had already treated the suspects as searched, once during booking at the 9th District station and once during intake at Cook County Jail.

The police department has not said whether Bartholomew's killing has led to any changes in search training or protocol since April. The internal affairs investigations into the June and July cases remain open, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has not indicated when it might complete its own review.