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The family of Sheridan Gorman is pushing back on comments from Chicago and Illinois leaders, saying her killing was not a “senseless tragedy” and demanding accountability for what they call systemic failures.
18-year-old Gorman was killed on March 19 at around 1:06 a.m. while she was with friends at a pier on the city’s Rogers Park area. Officials say that Jose Medina-Medina, 25, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly fired one shot at the Loyola University Chicago student, killing her. Medina-Medina was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Gorman family on Wednesday released a statement criticizing both Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, saying that her death “demands accountability.”
“What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to a ‘senseless tragedy,’ nor can it be explained in general terms about public safety. Sheridan was our daughter. She was 18 years old. She was doing something entirely normal—walking near her campus with friends. She should be here,” the Gorman family said regarding recent comments by Johnson.
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Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman poses with the school’s mascot during a campus event in an undated photo. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)
“Calling this ‘senseless’ is not enough. There must be a clear and honest accounting of what went wrong,” the family added. “We will not allow Sheridan’s life to be reduced to a talking point or a generalization. We expect leadership that is willing to confront hard truths and ensure that what happened to her does not happen again.”
Gorman’s family also responded to Gov. Pritzker’s recent comments on the freshman college student’s death, writing that “calling this a tragedy is not enough.”
“Sheridan’s death cannot be reduced to a general “tragedy,” nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else. Sheridan was a daughter, a sister, and a young woman whose life was taken in a way that should never have been possible,” the family said. “We are not interested in political arguments or in watching responsibility shift from one place to another. If there were failures—as the Governor himself has acknowledged—then every one of them must be identified, examined, and addressed directly. The location of those failures matters less than the willingness to confront them honestly.”
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Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan national, was also arrested for shoplifting and released before the alleged murder, DHS confirmed. (DHS)
“Our daughter is not a policy debate. She is a life that was taken, and that demands accountability,” they added.
Pritzker on Tuesday shifted blame to the Trump administration during an event, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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“This has been a terrible tragedy, and I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily… There have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. That’s their national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst,” Pritzker said.
Johnson on Tuesday also addressed Gorman’s death, saying that her life was taken due to “senseless violence,” but called out President Trump as well.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a rally in Chicago on Oct. 18, 2025. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)
“There’s no words that one could express that could properly console a family that lost their baby. And my condolences to the Gorman family,” Johnson said. “You know what the bigger threat to our public safety, it’s illegal weapons that are being trafficked from bordering states that voted for Donald Trump. This president refuses to be held accountable. And he points the finger at everything and everyone else versus doing some real self-reflection on what his responsibility is.”
“We know that this president has not taken this situation in this challenge in our country seriously, because my question would be, isn’t it time for the president of the United States of America in Congress to actually act and pass comprehensive immigration reform?” Johnson continued.
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, center, speaks in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“There’s no words that one could express that could properly console a family that lost their baby. And my condolences to the Gorman family,” Johnson said.
In a statement to Digital, White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have kept Americans safe.
“In record time, President Trump has totally secured the border, ended Biden’s border crisis, and deported countless dangerous criminal illegal aliens. Those are real solutions that keep the American people safe. Meanwhile, slobs like Pritzker have constantly defended dangerous criminal illegal aliens and attempted to obstruct the important work of the Trump Administration. Pritzker’s policies make the American people less safe,” Jackson said.
Homes in Yorktown Heights, New York, Gorman’s hometown, were lit up in green on Tuesday night to honor the slain Chicago college student. according to CBS News.
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A home displays a green porch light in honor of murdered Loyola student, Sheridan Gorman, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Gorman was shot to death in Chicago last week, allegedly by an illegal migrant. ( Digital)
A home displays a green porch light in honor of murdered Loyola student, Sheridan Gorman, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Gorman was shot to death in Chicago last week, allegedly by an illegal migrant. ( Digital)
A home displays a green porch light in honor of murdered Loyola student, Sheridan Gorman, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Gorman was shot to death in Chicago last week, allegedly by an illegal migrant. ( Digital)
An arrest report obtained by obtained by Digital shows that Medina-Medina was seen on security video in his apartment building’s lobby waiting for an elevator while unmasked after the alleged shooting. A building engineer told police that he knew the suspect, who had a “very distinct limp and gait.”
Police said Medina-Medina was wearing a black mask and black clothing as he walked away from the shooting, noting that he had a “distinct limp and slow gait.” He was seen walking from the location of the shooting to Pratt Boulevard at 1:12 a.m. Just a few minutes later, the individual was seen walking northbound through the east alley of Sheridan Road before he entered the back of his apartment complex.
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Sheridan Gorman was killed after being shot in the head while taking a walk with friends at Tobey Prinz Beach, located less than a mile from the Illinois’ campus, around 1 a.m. on Thursday, according to reports. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)
Images of the suspect were sent to a police database, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified the suspect as Medina-Medina. He was arrested at his apartment in Rogers Park, according to the arrest report.
Medina-Medina told officials in 2023 that he was living at Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park in 2023, which was being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants. The shelter closed in 2024, according to South Side Weekly.
Digital reached out to Johnson and Pritzker’s office.
