On May 3, 1968, Detective Young Hobson of the Chicago Police Department was off duty and relaxing at a local tavern when he spied someone with a pistol in his belt. Suspicious, Hobson began approaching the man to inquire about the weapon when another man, David Walsh, opened fire, sending dozens of customers ducking for cover and hitting Hobson five times, per a Chicago Sun-Times report and the Chicago Police Department Memorial Page. The detective died from his injuries.
That violent act landed Walsh a prison sentence of 20 to 40 years, from which he was paroled in 1983, reported the Chicago Sun-Times. Unreformed, Walsh engaged in various criminal acts, including being in possession of deadly weapons such as a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and an Uzi submachine gun. An armed robbery of a restaurant in 1987, though, sent Walsh back to prison with a 60-year sentence. His criminal record pushed the lead prosecutor to recommend he be “locked up forever,” according to records cited by the newspaper.
Despite a lengthy list of dangerous behavior as an inmate — including stabbings, threatening guards, being found with weapons and even discovered to be plotting an escape — Walsh once again was paroled in October 2017. On July 14, 2018, he robbed a Chicago bank at gunpoint, and federal authorities arrested him 10 days later.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Walsh entered a guilty plea last February, and at his sentencing hearing in the fall, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman was ready to give him another 13 years behind bars. That changed when Walsh opened his mouth to berate the jurist.
“Because you’re a filthy stinking pig, you motherf—er, and I’d blow your f—ing brains out,” Walsh said, according to a transcript. “I not only would blow your f—ing brains out, you pig, but I would kill your entire f—ing family and torture and murder each and every f—ing one of them, you filthy, motherf—ing lying pig motherf—er, you.”
Feinerman closed the hearing and postponed the sentencing until January 20, at which time he upped Walsh’s sentence to life in prison.
Detective Hobson was 40 years old when he was killed, and had served the CPD for 10 years, nine months and one day. He earned the detective rank as a rookie after apprehending and fatally wounding the killer of Detective Barney Halperin, according to CPD Memorial Page.
As seen in the March 2021 issue of American Police Beat magazine.
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