A gravely wounded Chicago police officer, shot in the face during the same hospital ambush that killed his partner John Bartholomew, is showing signs of improvement, the police union president told the Sun-Times Wednesday.
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said earlier this week that it was “going to take a miracle” for the surviving officer to recover from his injuries. “It’s very bad. It’s extremely critical. It’s not good,” he said at the time.
But the outlook has improved since then, to the point where there’s at least a glimmer of hope for the wounded officer.
“There has been some positive physical reactions from the officer in the hospital. I don’t want to say alertness, but I was informed that he was breathing on his own for a little while yesterday. That’s a positive sign,” Catanzara said.
“He did seem to have some reaction to conversation around him yesterday. So those are all [reasons to] keep praying and hope for the best, positive signs that he comes out of this on the other side, positively.”
Asked what the wounded officer’s quality of life will be if he does manage to survive his injuries, Catanzara pointed to the rather miraculous recovery of Carlos Yanez Jr., who was shot in the face five years ago on the same night that his partner Ella French was killed.
“You asked me that question when Carlos [Yanez] was in the hospital at this stage, I would’ve said it would’ve been a miserable existence,” Catanzara said. “But here Carlos is — thriving, driving on his own, getting around. Obviously some physical impairments, but missing an eye. … He has an independent life … which I don’t think anybody a week after he was shot ever thought was a reality that could be. So, you never know. The body is an amazing thing.”
Catanzara described the wounded officer’s injuries as “kind of a double tragedy” because he was in what should have been the closing chapter of his policing career.
“When you’re thinking about retirement and counting the next phase of your life, and then this kind of befalls you, it’s a tragedy on a different level,” Catanzara said. “Because you’re so close to the finish line, so to speak, and you didn’t get there — or at least not in the shape you thought you were gonna get there.”
Catanzara said there are only two possible explanations for how convicted felon Alphanso Talley was able to smuggle a gun into Swedish Hospital, where he had been transported at his own request after being arrested for robbing an Albany Park dollar store and pistol-whipping a female employee last Saturday.
“He had it in his anal cavity or … hidden within the folds of his fat. There’s really only those two possibilities,” the union president said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever know … unless the other officer makes a substantial recovery enough to describe what happened.”
Talley pulled the gun out from under a blanket, but he “had the weapon on him when he entered the hospital,” Catanzara said.
“It was not one of the officers’ weapons. I’m gonna be very clear about that. That was not some secondary weapon that one of these officers had. It was definitely the offender’s weapon,” he said, noting that an alleged straw purchaser had been charged in federal court this week for buying the weapon used in the attack.
The possibility that Talley may have hidden the gun raises serious questions about police protocol for searching body cavities and skin layers.
Catanzara acknowledged that officers are rightfully hesitant to conduct “invasive searches” for fear of risking suspension for violating an arrestee’s civil rights .
“Officers have taken suspensions for doing just that. Does that bleed into officers’ mindsets? You can’t say that it doesn’t,” Catanzara said.
“Whether it’s a search or how you interact with an offender you believe is armed, it’s entirely different now today than it was five, ten, 15 years ago,”he said. “Do we search [body] cavities? No, we do not.”
Catanzara said a properly-conducted search by Swedish Hospital employees would have discovered a gun hidden in layers of body fat or inside a body cavity.
Endeavor Health, the hospital system that includes Swedish Hospital, has said Talley “was wanded upon arrival” as part of its “public safety weapon detection protocols.” Endeavor said that he was escorted by law enforcement at all times.
“I know the hospital insisted that he was wanded,” Catanzara said. “I question whether that was done properly or done at all, to be quite honest with you.”
Catanzara noted that the pictures and videos of Talley show that he was naked at the time of his arrest.
“He had very large fat rolls, including his breasts. He could have had it tucked under there,” Catanzara said.