ROGERS PARK — A man has been charged in the fatal shooting of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman last week in Rogers Park, police said.
Jose Medina, 25, was charged with murder on Sunday. Police said he killed Gorman early Thursday as she hung out with friends along the Rogers Park lakefront in a crime that has shocked the school community and neighbors.
Medina is a Venezuelan national who was apprehended by Border Patrol in 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He lives in the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road, near where the fatal shooting took place, police said.
The Department of Homeland Security filed an arrest detainer against Medina that requests authorities not release from custody a person who may be deported, the agency confirmed Sunday.
Police did not comment on the man’s immigration status Sunday.
About 1:30 a.m. Thursday, Gorman, 18, was with a group of friends on the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach in Loyola Park, a few blocks north of Loyola’s campus, when a man walked up to them and opened fire, officials said. The gunman was wearing a mask, and Gorman was shot as she attempted to run away, according to Homeland Security. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gorman was a freshman in Loyola’s business school from New York state. She was involved in campus religious groups and devoted herself to charity, friends and family said at a vigil Thursday night at Loyola’s Madonna della Strada Chapel.
“She was always the first person who would hug me at a group, and she was always the last person, too,” said Kim Johnson, a faculty member who assisted Gorman in Bible study and the Christian organization Cru. “That’s the kind of person Sheridan was.”
White roses are tucked into the fence of a lighthouse on the Loyola Beach pier on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student was fatally shot at the location earlier that morning. Credit: Victor Hilitski for Block Club Chicago
Gorman was described at the vigil as a vibrant, generous person who was dedicated to her faith and always had a smile on her face. Jessica Gorman, her mother, called on law enforcement and officials to get justice for her daughter.
“I really hate saying this, but Chicago, we trusted you with our hearts and you betrayed us,” Jessica Gorman said at the vigil. “We need answers. We need accountability, and we will not stop until the person who did this is found and locked up.”
Medina was also charged with one count of attempted murder, three felony counts of aggravated assault and one felony count of unlawful possession of a weapon, police said. He is due to make his first court appearance Monday.
Medina was apprehended by Border Patrol but allowed into the United States in May 2023, according to Homeland Security. He was arrested for a retail theft in Chicago in 2023 but was released, the federal agency said in a press release.
The theft occurred at the State Street Macy’s, and Medina was the subject of a warrant after he failed to appear in court on the charges, according to the Tribune.
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