Eighteen-year-old Sheridan Gorman from Yorktown Heights, New York, was finishing up her freshman year at Loyola University in Chicago. By all accounts, she was a bubbly, vivacious, and friendly young woman who had settled into campus life and was thriving with an active social circle.
In what is apparently a Loyola freshman tradition, as I’ve heard from students in many of the accounts I’ve listened to so far, Gorman was with friends at a Rogers Park beach near the university’s Lakeshore Campus early Thursday morning.
As the group walked, a masked gunman appeared from behind a light pole at the end of the pier, fired one shot into the little crowd, and fled.
That bullet struck the young woman in the head, killing her.
Loyola University has confirmed that the victim of this morning’s fatal shooting on the pier at Loyola Beach is a first-year student at the school.
Police continue to hunt for the masked gunman who took her life.https://t.co/Xi1gAVHqTT
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) March 19, 2026
Neighbors said there was a pop in the night and then blood-curdling screams about 20 minutes later.
…A neighbor who did not want to be identified said she heard what sounded like a gunshot.
“So I was just starting to go to sleep and then we heard one pop, both my partner and I,” the neighbor said. “I though it was a firework, but then 20 minutes later there was a lot of like blood curdling screams that were happening.”
Loyola released a statement in part saying, “This is a tragic loss, and our hearts go out to Sheridan’s family, loved ones, and all who knew her. We are in close contact with law enforcement as they investigate and work to understand the full circumstances of this tragedy. Based on the information available to us now, there is no ongoing threat to our campus community. We will continue to provide updates as confirmed information becomes available.”
Those who live in the area, said this is a popular spot for Loyola students and a place where neighbors walk their dogs.
LOYOLA UNIV STUDENT KILLED: Sheridan Gorman, 18, was months away from finishing her first year at @LoyolaChicago before, police say, the college freshman was shot and killed in front of friends while at a popular pier near campus.
Her murder is leaving the campus and her native… pic.twitter.com/nbvcrx0K0B
— Tre Ward (@TreWardTV) March 20, 2026
On Friday, Chicago police announced they’d arrested a ‘Venezuelan migrant’ in connection with the murder…
A Venezuelan migrant is in custody and being questioned in connection with the murder of Loyola University freshman Sheridan Gorman at the Loyola Beach pier early Thursday morning, according to multiple sources.
The 25-year-old man was arrested shortly before 9 p.m. Friday at an apartment building in the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road during the execution of a search warrant related to the case, sources said. A firearm was recovered during the search and is being tested to determine whether a shell casing found near Gorman’s body was ejected from the weapon.
Sources familiar with the investigation said there is no indication that any provocation or altercation preceded the shooting. They said Gorman, 18, and her friends had gone to the lakefront to take pictures when they crossed paths with the suspect on the pier. He was wearing a ski mask or other face covering at the time. As they passed, he fired one shot, striking Gorman.
…and, on Sunday, DHS had confirmed everyone’s worst fears by issuing a detainer…
A Venezuelan migrant is charged with murdering a Loyola University student as she walked with friends along the pier at Loyola Beach early Thursday, Chicago police announced Sunday evening.
The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that it had lodged an arrest detainer asking Chicago officials not to release the man, describing him as “a Venezuelan criminal illegal alien.”
Jose Medina, 25, of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road, will be in court for a detention hearing on Monday, CPD said. DHS identified him as Jose Medina-Medina.
…and a scathing statement concerning the illegal alien’s background while in the sanctuary city of Chicago in the sanctuary state of Illinois.
BREAKING: DHS confirms that the suspect in custody for murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman in Chicago is a Venezuelan illegal alien who was caught & released at the border by the Biden administration in May 2023. DHS says he was also released from local custody… pic.twitter.com/tIo3iSualm
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 22, 2026
…DHS says he was also released from local custody after a shoplifting arrest in the sanctuary city of Chicago on June 19, 2023.
DHS identifies the suspect as Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina. Medina-Medina is accused of approaching Gorman while she was walking in a park with friends early Thursday morning.
DHS says Medina-Medina came up to her while wearing a mask and armed with a gun. As she attempted to flee, he fired his gun and shot her. Gorman was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
DHS statement:
“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “We are calling on Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods.”
Chicago Democrat and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden thinks that the students could have ‘startled the person’ with the gun. So, entirely the group’s fault for being in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time.’
Meet Chicago Democrat and 49th Ward Alderwoman Maria Hadden, who pretty much blamed Sheridan Gorman for her own murder:
“The kids were out doing normal things people do in the neighborhood. And it sounds like this might have been a wrong-place, wrong-time situation, running into… pic.twitter.com/QkJnRGqIaG
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) March 23, 2026
Had the Biden administration done its initial duty towards the safety and security of the American people, had the governor of the state or the mayor of the city done the same for their residents during any of these chances to remove Medina, Sheridan Gorman would still be alive.
She paid with her life for indulging progressive #feelingz.
Pointing out this statement of fact is ‘politicizing’ a ‘heinous tragedy’ to one of the men directly responsible for the circumstances that ended with this teenager’s murder.
Here you are in the same place Sheridan was murdered by an illegal alien you’re saying ICE “it wouldn’t be good for anyone”
It would have been good for Sheridan Gorman. pic.twitter.com/UxhA9jjcJi
— J (@JayTC53) March 23, 2026
A call to ICE would have saved Sheridan Gorman’s life.
That call would never come from Chicago or anywhere in Illinois.
OUT OF CONTROL ADMINISTRATION
Mayor Johnson banned ICE from public parks, Sheridan Gorman was killed by an illegal alien a public park.
Governor Pritzker requires Americans who want to practice their 2nd Amendment Right to ask permission to do so but illegal aliens are exempt from this requirement. pic.twitter.com/YzVscShj02
— Libs Of Chicago (@Libs_OfChicago) March 22, 2026
The porculent prince of Pritzkerdom is doing his best to sidestep any culpability for this illegal alien’s thrill killing by having his thick, lying lips form his favorite epithet:
TRUMP
J.B. Pritzker’s office just broke their silence on the murder of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman in Chicago by a previously arrested illegal alien in which they condemn the Trump admin for “politicizing heinous tragedies.”
Pathetic. pic.twitter.com/NcxxhFG6Fi
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 23, 2026
It’s not just illegals with bullets and knives that the governor and the mentally challenged mayor have to answer for. It’s what illegal aliens bring with them before they get their hands on actual weapons that these sanctuary officials have to answer for as they willfully and obstinately endanger their citizens.
This accused murderer is a perfect example. His arraignment hearing yesterday?
Had to be postponed because he’s in a Chicago hospital being treated for TUBERCULOSIS.
Her family is paying taxes that go to treatment for her murderers tuberculosis. Think about that for a second.
TB in the U.S. is heavily concentrated among non-U.S.-born persons, who accounted for 77% of cases in 2024. Their incidence rate was about 15.7 per 100,000—nearly 20…
— Matt Nachtrab (@MattNachtrab) March 24, 2026
…Their incidence rate was about 15.7 per 100,000—nearly 20 times higher than the 0.8 rate among U.S.-born persons. Many of these cases represent reactivation of latent TB acquired years earlier in higher-burden countries.
TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP
That is all these malevolent, ignorant, incompetent, outright evil elected progressives have to say to deflect from themselves, as there is no defense.
Pritzker laid flowers at a makeshift memorial for Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Got a bang-up publicity photo of his bulbous butt doing it.
Standing with Minnesotans tonight and paying my respects to Alex Pretti and Renee Good. pic.twitter.com/NNagk41ROn
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) January 29, 2026
It took this revolting individual four days – FOUR days – to issue a public statement about the truly heinous murder of an innocent young woman in his own state by a savage whom Pritzker had every opportunity in the world to stop before that fatal shot.
And didn’t.
I do not understand how voters elect such overbearing and openly callous vermin to rule them.
That festering cesspool of a city is filled with such ‘elected’ officials who will choose the illegal and the criminal over an innocent victim every time.
A detention hearing for the Venezuelan man charged with murdering a Loyola University student was postponed Monday because he is hospitalized with tuberculosis, but prosecutors still revealed new details about the investigation — including that the suspect was identified in part through facial recognition technology that a local state lawmaker is actively trying to ban from law enforcement use.
Jose Medina, 25, of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road in Rogers Park, is charged with first-degree murder and other felonies in connection with the slaying of Sheridan Gorman, the 18-year-old freshman on the pier at Loyola Beach early last Thursday.
Illinois law requires defendants facing potential detention to be present at their hearings, so yesterday’s proceeding could not move forward without him. Still, prosecutors laid out a few headlines to allow Judge Luciano Panici Jr. to hold Medina until he is discharged from the hospital.
They told the judge that Gorman and her friends had gone to the lakefront around 1 a.m. to take pictures. Leading the way, Gorman reached the end of the pier and encountered the masked Medina, who was concealing himself near the light beacon, prosecutors said. When Gorman and her friends turned and ran back toward the beach, Medina allegedly fired a single shot that struck Gorman in the back and exited through her neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
…Detectives also sent the video to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which used facial recognition technology to link the footage to Medina, according to a CPD report.
The case adds a new dimension to Illinois State Rep. Kelly Cassidy’s campaign to ban Illinois law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition in any way. Cassidy, who represents the Rogers Park neighborhood where Gorman was murdered, introduced a bill last Wednesday, the day before the shooting, that would ban state and local law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition technology and would prohibit agencies from working with outside agencies or companies to perform such identification on their behalf.
As the face of the progressive insanity running the state, Governor Pritzker hides nothing. His entitled arrogance oozes from every pore like foaming drool slides down his oversized jowls.
I do not understand at all.
Beege ADDS: That deeply ingrained, hostile to everything that is good and right mentality completely escapes me.
I will never understand the impulse to protect those who do not protect those they are elected to…protect.
SHAME on the Chicago Tribune for this BLATANT OMISSION.
The illegal alien suspected of murdering Sheridan Gorman is a TWICE RELEASED criminal illegal alien.
This murder NEVER should have happened because this illegal alien should NEVER have been in our country. https://t.co/rcgAYqEPtE pic.twitter.com/O3ATv0j0DG
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 23, 2026
I guess I never will.
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