A Consolidated Look at the Loyola Beach Killing of First-Year Student

Loyola first-year Sheridan Gorman, 18, was walking along the pier at Loyola Beach with a group of friends early March 19 when she was fatally shot at about 1:11 a.m., The Phoenix reported. 

Police responded to a call about a shooting and arrived at the park around 1:30 a.m. where Sheridan Gorman was pronounced dead, according to police reports. Loyola Campus Safety sent a crime alert around 4:30 a.m. alerting the university community of the homicide by a yet unknown offender wearing black clothing and a face mask. 

At about 9 a.m. Loyola President Mark C. Reed released another message identifying Sheridan Gorman as the slain student and stating there was no ongoing threat to Loyola’s campus.

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) originally reported Sheridan Gorman had been shot in the head but later corrected to say she had been shot in the back while fleeing the shooter. Police have now arrested and charged 25-year-old Rogers Park resident Jose Medina. 

Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara said during Medina’s initial hearing March 22 that Sheridan Gorman alerted her friends to someone hiding by the pier before the offender chased the group and shot Sheridan Gorman in the back while she was running away, according to Block Club Chicago. Sheridan Gorman’s friends dove into the grass by the pier as the shooter fled the beach.

A friend of Sheridan’s and a member of the group present during the shooting told the Chicago Sun-Times they’d gone to the pier to take pictures of the skyline. The friend said it didn’t seem like the attack was intentionally targeted at them, and the offender had fired one shot before fleeing.

Police arrested Medina around 9 p.m. March 20 after police used surveillance video to track him fleeing from the beach toward his apartment, The Phoenix reported. 

CPD obtained a search warrant for his home, where they later found clothes and a face mask matching witness descriptions and a 40-caliber handgun matching a shell recovered at Tobey Prinz Beach, Pekara said in a recent court hearing.

On March 22, CPD charged Medina with six felonies including one murder in the first degree, one attempted murder in the first degree, three aggravated assault/discharge of a firearm and one unlawful possession of a weapon, according to a news release.

Medina missed the initial Sunday court hearing after being hospitalized with tuberculosis, according to the Sun-Times. He has another hearing scheduled for March 27.

The Response of the Loyola Community

In his March 19 message to the Loyola community, Reed first announced a vigil for Sheridan Gorman to take place at 7 p.m. in the Madonna della Strada Chapel, an invitation to grieve which the Division of Student Development later repeated with another community-wide message.

The vigil was delayed to around 7:15 p.m. to allow Sheridan Gorman’s parents, Thomas and Jessica Gorman, time to travel to Loyola’s campus from O’Hare International Airport, The Phoenix reported. 

Reed began the service by leading a prayer of solidarity, before several members of Loyola’s chapter of Christian ministry group Cru spoke about Sheridan Gorman, describing her as an “absolute delight.”

Madonna was overflowing with students during the vigil, with many having to stand around the walls once there was no more seating available. Jessica Gorman, Sheridan Gorman’s mother, spoke at the service and said her daughter loved Loyola. She called for justice.

“To Chicago, do better,” Jessica Gorman said. “Be better, we trusted you with our heart…We feel like that trust was betrayed.”

Alderwoman Maria Hadden (49th) also attended the vigil alongside students from the gun-violence awareness organization Loyola Students Demand Action, who wore signature red shirts to signify they were available to console any grieving students, The Phoenix reported.

A pile of flowers was laid on the Loyola Beach Pier and stuck into the fencing around the pier’s lighthouse Sunday afternoon.

A GoFundMe was launched over the weekend by Yorktown resident Larry Finer, and as of March 24 it had raised over $160,000. The description says all proceeds will go to memorial activities or potentially a scholarship.

National Response

Medina lives on the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road about a block away from where the shooting occurred, according to a police report. Medina is a Venezuelan immigrant and had been living in the country illegally, according to a March 22 press release from the Department of Homeland Security.

He first entered the United States and was apprehended temporarily by Border Patrol in 2023, according to DHS. He was also charged with a misdemeanor in 2023 for shoplifting at the State Street Macy’s Department Store, according to the Chicago Tribune. Medina hadn’t shown for his court hearing and as of September 2023 had an outstanding warrant related to the shoplifting case.

In the March 22 press release, DHS said ICE had filed an arrest detainer requesting Medina not be released from custody. After the DHS release said Medina was a Venezuelan immigrant, Gorman’s killing has drawn headlines nationwide with many local and national politicians commenting on the incident.

On March 23, President Donald Trump blamed previous President Joe Biden for Gorman’s death and used her killing to attack Democratic border policy and Illinois and Chicago’s sanctuary policies. The White House followed up with an Instagram post March 24 calling Gorman’s killing a “preventable tragedy.”

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker released a statement March 23  calling Gorman’s murder a tragedy and offering his condolences to her family, friends and the Loyola community. Speaking at a press conference in Springfield after an Illinois Agriculture Legislative Day event, Pritzker said he was waiting for a more appropriate time to speak with Gorman’s parents but said he has spoken with local Chicago officials.

“I agree there have been real failures,” Pritzker said. “Those failures of course extend beyond the borders of Illinois, they’re 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. And in my view we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do.”

ICE announced Operation Midway Blitz in September 2025, The Phoenix previously reported. During the operation federal immigration agents were spotted several times in Rogers Park and Edgewater with the last sighting on Dec. 17 according to The Phoenix’s ICE Tracker. ICE agents were spotted at O’Hare airport Monday, the Sun-Times reported, which the Trump administration said was to aid the understaffed TSA amid an ongoing partial shutdown.

A 2024 Northwestern University study looked at 150 years of Census data and found “immigrants were consistently less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the US.”
Hadden posted a statement March 24 mentioning the ongoing GoFundMe campaign and pledging support for Gorman’s family and the Loyola community. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson posted a statement the same day commending the CPD investigation of the killing and promised continued investment in the city’s public safety.