Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling called fallen Chicago police Officer John Bartholomew a “cop’s cop,” remembering a photograph of the patrol officer wearing a helmet while working hard during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.
“He walked like a seasoned veteran. He was proud, strong. He loved his job,” Snelling said during Friday’s funeral for the slain officer. “Most important, he was a family man who always helped his family, because he truly loved his family.”
Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday morning at an Edgewater church as loved ones remembered Bartholomew, whose killing raised questions about how a suspect in custody had a gun and drew scrutiny to the county’s electronic monitoring system. Bartholomew, 38, was slain in a shooting inside Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital on April 25 that also seriously injured a second officer, Nelson Crespo.
Prosecutors have alleged that Alphanso Talley, 26, shot the officers while being treated at the hospital following an arrest for alleged armed robbery.
Family members and colleagues recalled the officer as a public-service-driven family man with a sharp wit and optimistic demeanor, who cheerfully told a supervisor, “Hey commander,” every time he passed by her. He loved his family and hated social media, his brother remarked to laughs from the crowd, noting the irony of his image circulating across the internet over the past two weeks.
“He had that skill, that skill to be able to talk to people,” Cmdr. Alison Christian said. “It was just amazing. He would go into jobs and he would worry about everybody’s feelings. He would worry about the victim, the offender, the police officer. At the end of a job he was on, he made sure that everybody felt good.”
The funeral took place at St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church at 5649 N. Sheridan Road, the same church Bartholomew once served in as an altar boy. Family, friends and fellow officers crowded into the pews for the service that was also attended by Mayor Brandon Johnson and former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Outside the church, hundreds of police officers had gathered on Sheridan Road in dress uniforms. Many sported buttons of Bartholomew’s face and milled quietly in front of a screen outside the church showing his picture. Squad cars from other departments in nearby suburbs and the Illinois State Police sat in traffic crawling north on Sheridan as neighbors peered up the street from in front of their high-rises.
Traffic was closed to vehicles all around the church, and a Chicago Fire Department engine hoisted a giant American flag just outside the church. A few civilians stood on the edges of the crowd, holding smartphones and craning their necks as a procession of bagpipes stepped off down Sheridan.
Inside, Bartholomew’s casket lay covered with a city flag while white-robed clergy stood in an arc around it and chanted to begin the service, presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael, the leader of the region’s Greek Orthodox Church.
“John did not lose his life while fleeing danger,” Nathanael said. “He gave his life while serving another human being.”
Snelling recounted how he’d delivered the news of Bartholomew’s death to his family the day of the shooting. Bartholomew’s mother had told him that he had always wanted to be a police officer.
He then turned his address to Bartholomew’s three children.
“Your father is a hero,” Snelling said. “His legacy will live on. That is why we’re here today.”
Also speaking was Bartholomew’s brother, James Bartholomew, who listed the many roles his brother had played in the lives of the people gathered in the church and beyond its walls.
“If you are here today, you have lost a co-worker, a friend, a fellow Christian, a neighbor. You may have lost a cousin, a nephew, an uncle, godfather, son, brother,” he said. “If you are watching this across our nation, you have lost a fellow American. If you are watching this around the world, you have lost a fellow human.”
He recalled his brother’s response to the news of the deaths of firefighter Michael Altman and police Officer Ella French.
“Every time the same response,” he said. “That’s the job. Sometimes you don’t come back.”
Speaking at the front of the church, the officer’s brother paced back and forth as he spoke, wearing a pair of dark sunglasses with his suit. He referenced the September slaying of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, calling it a similar tragedy.
“A fellow American by the name of Erika Kirk was criticized for her display, her emotional display for what happened to her husband, Charlie,” he said.
He spoke of the grief he’s experienced, saying it’s like a dream, “the worst kind,” followed by feelings of sadness, anger and “disappointment in the system.”
Still, he said, he’s grateful for the time he had with his brother.
“His love and his stewardship will be with us forever,” he said.
He then walked off the altar to a brief round of applause.
After the service, Bartholomew’s casket was brought outside to be placed into the hearse.
As Snelling and Johnson presented Chicago city flags to members of Bartholomew’s family, members of the church clergy chanted, “Axios. He is worthy.”
After the service, Johnson offered continued prayers for Crespo and Bartholomew’s family, adding that this is a “very somber and difficult day for his family and the Department and for the people of Chicago.”
“But make no mistake about it, though it’s a somber day, though we are grieving as a city, as a department, and, of course, as family, our resolve to make sure that our department, our Police Department, is showing up every single day on behalf of the people of Chicago to build safe and affordable communities, and that mission will continue,” he said.
Despite warnings from the city days ahead of the funeral, services disrupted traffic in surrounding neighborhoods for much of the morning and into the afternoon. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications, in response to questions over the traffic impact, reiterated it had sent advisories warning travelers.
The funeral followed a visitation at the same church on Thursday.
Bartholomew left behind his wife, Renee, a daughter and stepsons, as well as friends, colleagues and neighbors. After his shooting, residents of his block in the Far Northwest Side’s Edison Park neighborhood, an enclave that houses many police officers and city workers, tied blue ribbons to trees.
Snelling, in a departmental message, had called the shooting a “devastating loss for our department and our city.”
“This officer gave his life to protect his fellow Chicagoans, and we will never let our city forget his sacrifice,” he wrote.
Snelling spoke outside a visitation for Bartholomew late Thursday as well.
“We have a family in there that’s suffering,” he said, adding that the department was trying to provide loved ones whatever comfort they could. “You can feel the grief in the air.”
The shooting inside the Lincoln Square hospital on a Saturday morning sent a massive police response to the locked down facility and set off sprawling investigations that also led to federal charges against an Indiana woman who is accused of buying the gun used in the shooting.
Around 9 a.m. that morning, the officers had brought Talley, who was in custody, to the hospital for treatment after he claimed to have swallowed drugs and said his legs were numb.
Talley allegedly kept his pants on at first while changing into a hospital gown, but later removed them. He had his left arm cuffed to the bed and kept his right arm underneath a blanket that was draped over him, prosecutors said.
While inside a treatment room, prosecutors said, Talley took a gun from under the blanket and shot Bartholomew in the head as the officer uncuffed him. He allegedly shot Bartholomew’s partner moments later.
Sources confirmed that the Chicago Police Department is investigating how Talley had a gun inside the hospital following at least one pat-down upon his arrest. But administrators from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability rejected a records request for initial paperwork on the probe, saying that CPD had requested the records be withheld so as not to interfere with the investigation.
Talley escaped the hospital as employees and patients hid and took cover before he was arrested hiding under a porch nearby.
Talley had been taken into custody earlier that morning and accused of taking about $110 at gunpoint from an Albany Park Family Dollar store.
Prior to that arrest, Talley had faced pending charges alleging armed robbery and carjacking and was released by Judge John Lyke on electronic monitoring.
On March 9, though, Talley’s device shut off and officials lost track of him. Lyke issued a warrant for his arrest, but the case went before the judge more than 48 hours after the violation occurred, contrary to a new policy set by Chief Judge Charles Beach that sought to more quickly address violations of electronic monitoring requirements.
The warrant was outstanding until Talley was arrested during the events on April 25.
Tribune reporter Tess Kenny contributed.
