Chicago Officer John Bartholomew Killed in Hospital Shooting

A Chicago police officer shot Saturday inside a Lincoln Square hospital has died. He was 38 years old.

John Bartholomew, a 10-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department assigned to the 24th District, was fatally shot at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital, 5140 N. California Ave., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A second officer, 57, who has been with CPD for 21 years, remained in critical condition Sunday and was described as “fighting for his life.”

The shooting unfolded after a robbery suspect who had been arrested earlier that morning was brought to the hospital. Bartholomew and the second officer were shot inside the facility before the suspect fled. He was taken into custody shortly after.

Police Supt. Larry Snelling addressed reporters Saturday afternoon at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where both officers were transported following the attack. “Fighting for his life,” Snelling said of the wounded officer, who has not been publicly identified.

Bartholomew worked out of the 24th District, which covers Rogers Park, Edgewater and West Ridge on the city’s North Side. He had joined CPD a decade ago.

The shooting raised immediate questions about how the suspect obtained or retained a firearm after being taken into custody. Endeavor Health said the suspect “was wanded upon arrival” as part of its “public safety weapon detection protocols,” according to a statement from the hospital system. Police sources initially told Chicago Sun-Times that the suspect had disarmed one of the officers. But a later account from a police source said investigators believe the suspect wasn’t known to be armed until he was stripped down at the hospital, at which point he opened fire.

Three weapons. That’s how many Snelling said investigators recovered from the scene.

The sequence of events left officials and residents in the surrounding Lincoln Square neighborhood shaken. After the shooting, authorities issued brief shelter-in-place warnings for the area around Swedish Hospital while officers searched for the fleeing suspect.

A surveillance photo obtained during the investigation appeared to show the suspect running from the hospital without clothing, with electrodes still attached to his chest. That detail, combined with the conflicting accounts of how he got a gun past the hospital’s screening, will likely be central to any Civilian Office of Police Accountability review that follows.

CPD hasn’t released the name of the wounded officer, citing his condition. He has served the department for more than two decades, nearly twice as long as Bartholomew.

The department’s 24th District station serves one of the city’s most densely populated stretches of lakefront neighborhoods. Officers there handle calls that span from Rogers Park’s mix of longtime residents and new arrivals down through Edgewater and into West Ridge. Bartholomew was one of theirs.

Snelling offered no additional timeline Saturday for when investigators expect to clarify the exact sequence of events inside the hospital. The suspect’s identity hasn’t been released publicly as of Sunday morning. Charges, if any have been filed, weren’t confirmed in official statements.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office hasn’t yet commented publicly on potential charges.

City officials, including members of the City Council, began issuing statements Saturday night mourning Bartholomew and calling for a full accounting of how the shooting occurred inside a medical facility that had screened the suspect upon entry. That question, how a man under arrest ended up shooting two cops inside a hospital, is the one that Snelling and department leadership will face in the days ahead.

Bartholomew’s death marks one of the most jarring single incidents for CPD since Snelling took over as superintendent. The department has faced sustained scrutiny over officer safety, staffing shortages across its 22 districts, and ongoing negotiations over working conditions. None of that background softens what happened Saturday morning on California Avenue, where a robbery suspect in custody shot two officers, killing one, inside a building where both men had no reasonable expectation of danger. The second officer’s family has asked for privacy while he receives care at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.