A Venezuelan illegal immigrant who never appeared for a shoplifting charge after being released in Chicago is now accused of fatally shooting a Loyola University student in an apparent random attack near the city’s waterfront.
Police arrested Jose Medina-Medina, 25, over the weekend for allegedly shooting 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman as she walked with friends along the pier at Loyola Beach early Thursday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also lodged an arrest detainer against Medina-Medina on Sunday, naming the suspect hours before police announced the charges.
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
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security implored Chicago officials to not release the Venezuelan migrant who entered under President Joe Biden’s watch.
“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life,” said DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “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.”
The reportedly unprovoked attack occurred shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday, March 19 as Gorman was walking with friends at Tobey Prinz Beach. Medina-Medina allegedly approached her while wearing a ski mask and was armed with a gun.
According to investigators, he fired once, striking Gorman in the torso, though CPD initially reported she had been shot in the head, CWB Chicago reported. Gorman was pronounced dead at the scene.
The apartment building where investigators executed a search warrant on Friday is less than two blocks from the pier in Rogers Park where Gorman was fatally shot, CWB Chicago reported.
Medina-Medina is charged with first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault by discharging a firearm, and aggravated possession of a weapon, CWP Chicago reported.
In a social media post, DHS said “Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration. He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”
We have lodged an arrest detainer requesting sanctuary politicians NOT release Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan criminal illegal alien arrested for killing 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman in Chicago, Illinois.
Medina-Medina shot and killed Gorman Thursday morning while she was… pic.twitter.com/6SmbjRklfc
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 22, 2026
DHS confirmed Medina-Medina was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, but released. He was then freed from jail on June 19, 2023, following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago.
Gorman’s family issued a statement Saturday morning, after local reporting by the Chicago Sun Times quoted her friend who characterized them as being in the “wrong place, wrong time.”
“She was exactly where she should have been — close to campus, surrounded by friends, living her life,” the family said, noting she and her friends had gone to the lakefront hoping to see the Northern Lights. “What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is not an abstraction. This is the loss of a daughter. The loss of a sister. The loss of a future filled with milestones that will now never come. Our family is forever changed.”
Retired Chief of Police Thomas Weitzel, who served the Riverside, Illinois Police Department and supports Awake Illinois, weighed in on his X account, noting “The system collapsed completely, with safeguards & accountability gone. The victim was murdered because those in charge failed to do their jobs.”
Weitzel, “The system collapsed completely, with safeguards & accountability gone. The victim was murdered because those in charge failed to do their jobs.” @CWBChicago @Awake_IL @John_Kass @AM560TheAnswer https://t.co/zqpLEpIU65
— Chief Thomas Weitzel-Retired (@ChiefWeitzel) March 23, 2026
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, has been a vocal proponent of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and pushed back on the “wrong place, wrong time” narrative.
“She wasn’t in the ‘wrong place’ at the ‘wrong time,’” Luna wrote, expressing her condolences for Gorman on X. “She was an American college student taking a walk in public with her friends, which every American should be able to do without the fear of being murdered by criminal illegals.”
She wasn’t in the “wrong place” at the “wrong time”. She was an American college student taking a walk in public with her friends, which every American should be able to do without the fear of being murdered by criminal illegals.
Sheridan Gorman was only 18 years old. pic.twitter.com/gPnrxCY30i
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) March 22, 2026
Court records show Medina-Medina was arrested in June 2023 for allegedly shoplifting from the Macy’s at 111 North State Street in the Loop.
Medina-Medina was released from custody “by rule of the court,” a cash bail-era procedure that allowed non-violent offenders to be released on their own recognizance. He never showed up for court again, records show, and he was never caught after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear.
At the time, Medina-Medina listed his address as 1222 West Touhy Avenue in Rogers Park, where the fieldhouse had been converted into a migrant shelter by City Hall.
Records show Medina was born in Venezuela and lived in the temporary migrant shelter at the Leone Beach Park Field House, which closed in 2024. The Chicago Sun Times reported he was among thousands of migrants who were bused to Chicago by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in protest of Biden’s border policies.
DHS officials also took aim at Illinois’ sanctuary policies: “Illinois sanctuary politicians and Governor Pritzker must work with us to ensure this public safety threat is NEVER released back into our neighborhoods again.”
In December 2025, ICE Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul calling on him to “put the safety of Americans first” and honor ICE arrest detainers of the more than 4,000 criminal illegal aliens in the state’s custody, DHS said.
Initially, the unidentified suspect fled and police reviewed video surveillance footage to tie Medina-Medina to the crime.
CWB Chicago reported over the weekend that CPD investigators executed a search warrant at an apartment in the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road shortly before 9 p.m. Friday. They recovered a firearm and detained a 25-year-old man for questioning.
Police the sent weapon to a ballistics laboratory to determine whether it matched the bullet that struck Gorman, who was killed by a single shot to the torso, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to witness reports, they were walking along the pier when a masked man appeared and reportedly fired a gun without warning or provocation.
Detectives used footage from multiple cameras to track the suspect to the apartment building. They also have footage of Medina-Medina without a face covering, and someone familiar with the building recognized the suspect from the footage, CWB Chicago reported.
Gorman, a New York native, was just months away from finishing her first year of college. Police has said they do not believe she was the intended target but have not released details about a possible motive in the attack, ABC 7 News reported.
In an initial statement, Gorman’s relatives described her as “the light of our lives, and said “There is no way to soften this—this was murder.”
Gorman’s family issued an updated statement on Saturday, asking anyone with information to come forward. Private and public services to honor Gorman’s life are being planned in Yorktown, New York.
“We cannot accept a world where moments like this become something people grow used to. We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to violence. When we begin to accept these tragedies as inevitable, we all become vulnerable to them. Apathy is not harmless—it allows these moments to repeat,” the family said.
“Sheridan deserved a full life. She deserved the future that was taken from her. We will not allow her to be remembered as just another story. She was extraordinary, and she will always be loved.”
Her family said they were “gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” the Chicago Sun Times shared in a follow-up report on Medina-Medina’s arrest.
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.”
