A Venezuelan migrant has been charged with the murder of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, police announced Sunday, prompting outrage from Trump administration officials who branded her killing as the result of sanctuary policies in Illinois.
Jose Medina, 25, faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm for the March 19 attack near a pier at Tobey Prinz Beach, according to Chicago police.
Federal immigration authorities said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an arrest detainer naming Medina hours before police announced the charges.
The Department of Homeland Security said Medina was taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol in May 2023, released and then taken into custody again two months later for shoplifting. He was charged with misdemeanor retail theft in that case, accused of stealing $132.50 of merchandise from the State Street Macy’s, county court records show. An outstanding warrant from that case is active.
Records show Medina was born in Venezuela and at one point lived in a temporary migrant shelter at the Leone Beach Park Field House, which closed in 2024. He was among thousands of migrants who arrived in Chicago, many of them bused to the city by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in protest of former President Joe Biden’s border policies.
Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis claimed in a statement that Gorman was “failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians” and urged Gov. JB Pritzker to not release Medina, who was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday.
Pritzker’s office did not have any immediate comment.
Legislation signed by Republican former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner limits cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities. The Illinois TRUST Act generally bars police from sharing information with immigration agents or handing over people in custody unless a federal criminal warrant is issued, a policy long denigrated by President Donald Trump and other conservative critics.
Gorman, 18, and her friends took an early morning stroll Thursday just north of the Rogers Park campus, hoping to capture some photos with a view of the skyline and potentially the Northern Lights, her family said in a statement.
When they arrived, a masked gunman “emerged from the shadows” and fired a single shot as they fled, according to a Chicago police report. One of Gorman’s friends who witnessed the shooting told the Chicago Sun-Times that “it didn’t seem like it was intentionally targeted toward any of us.”
The friends ran in different directions when the shot was fired, but returned when they saw Gorman on the ground. She had been shot in her torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
In a statement, Gorman’s family said they were “gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime.
“When systems fail — whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act — the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent,” Gorman’s family said. “This case must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both state and federal law. There can be no gaps, no shortcuts, and no second chances that put others at risk. Accountability must be complete.”
The family insisted “we will not allow this to be dismissed as ‘wrong place, wrong time.’ This was not random misfortune. This was a violent and preventable act.”
