Police have arrested a Maywood man as the alleged companion of accused cop killer Alphanso Talley in the armed robbery of a dollar store that preceded the fatal shooting of Officer John Bartholomew at Swedish Hospital.
Jeron Tate, 18, faces felony counts of armed robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint, according to a CPD news release.
According to the release, Chicago police and members of the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Tate Thursday on the 7500 block of South Carpenter Street.
What to know about the shooting of two Chicago police officers at Swedish Hospital
He’s accused alongside Talley of robbing a Family Dollar at gunpoint in Albany Park at 3239 W. Lawrence Ave. after 8 a.m. Saturday. Prosecutors said at Talley’s detention hearing Thursday that he tried to open he store’s cash register and safe while Talley allegedly held the store’s 55-year-old cashier at gunpoint and pistol-whipped her.
Ultimately, prosecutors said, they robbed the store for about $110 and escaped on Lime scooters rented with an account tied to Talley’s email address. Albany Park (17th) District police arrested Talley a few minutes after the store clerk called police, but Tate escaped and was only described as an “unknown co-offender” during Thursday’s proceedings.
Talley, once in custody, allegedly told police he had swallowed several bags of drugs and was having trouble breathing. At Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital, he allegedly used the same gun he’d used in the dollar store robbery to fatally shoot Bartholomew once the officer uncuffed him from the hospital bed before shooting and critically wounding a second officer, identified in court records as Nelson Crespo.
Judge D’Anthony Thedford ordered Talley held pending trial Thursday, telling him “if you are out, you are dangerous.” Bartholomew’s funeral services were announced a few hours later.
Tate is set to come before a Cook County judge Friday afternoon. Cook County court records show he has a short criminal history. He was accused of criminal trespassing to a vehicle in February in a since-dropped case and of shoplifting about $240 worth of merchandise from the State Street Gap in March in a case that’s also since been dropped.