Loyola Student Death: Charges, Defense Claim, and Sanctuary Dispute

The Sheridan Gorman Loyola murder case centers on the March 19, 2026 shooting of an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago freshman near campus in Rogers Park, and the arrest four days later of Jose Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national now held without bail at the Cook County Jail on first-degree murder and related charges.¹ Medina has pleaded not guilty. The case has drawn national attention because of his immigration history and Illinois’s sanctuary policies.

What Happened That Night

Gorman, originally from Yorktown, New York, left a Loyola dormitory around midnight with five friends to walk to Tobey Prinz Beach and take photos of the Chicago skyline.¹ The group split up at the beach. Gorman walked toward a lighthouse pier with three friends.

At about 1:06 a.m., she came upon a man hiding behind the lighthouse. He was dressed entirely in black and wearing a ski mask. Startled, she turned back toward her friends and told them someone was there. The man stepped out holding a .40 caliber handgun. The group ran. He fired a single shot that struck Gorman in the upper left back.¹ Her friends scattered. When they returned they found her face down on the pier. She was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.²

Police recovered a single shell casing roughly 40 feet from where Gorman fell. Investigators have reported no known prior connection between the gunman and the victims.

How Police Identified Jose Medina

Chicago police investigators built the case from surveillance video, witness accounts, and facial recognition. Witnesses described the gunman walking with a distinctive limp, and detectives tracked him on security cameras from the beach to a nearby apartment building.³ Facial recognition software compared the camera images against records held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and returned a match to Jose Medina.⁴

When officers searched Medina’s residence on Chicago’s North Side, they recovered a firearm and a leg brace with his name on it. Ballistics testing matched shell casings from the recovered gun to the casing found at the crime scene.³ Medina’s mother told detectives her son walks with a limp because of a prior gunshot injury.⁵ He was taken into custody on March 23, 2026.

The Charges Against Medina

Medina faces charges on three tracks.

In Cook County state court, he is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon without a Firearm Owner’s Identification card.⁶

On April 2, 2026, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros filed a federal charge of illegal possession of a firearm in the Northern District of Illinois.⁷

On May 29, 2026, prosecutors added a charge of possession of contraband in a penal institution after jail staff found a six-inch shank in Medina’s pants pocket during a pat-down search at the Cook County Jail.⁸

Where the Case Stands

At a virtual detention hearing on March 27, 2026, Judge D’Anthony Thedford ordered Medina held without bail.⁹ Medina pleaded not guilty to all counts in late April 2026.¹⁰

At a June 1, 2026 status hearing, prosecutors were in the process of turning over more than 300 items of evidence to the defense. No trial date has been set. The next court appearance was scheduled for July 7, 2026 at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse.¹¹ His initial appearance in federal court on the firearm charge had not yet been scheduled as of mid-April 2026.⁷ Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has said her office will “prosecute this case to the fullest extent.”¹

The Defense’s Cognitive Impairment Claim

Medina’s public defender, Julie Koehler, has argued that her client has severe cognitive impairment from a gunshot wound to the head he suffered during a robbery in Colombia. She told the court the injury left him missing a portion of his brain, forced him to relearn how to walk and talk, and left him with the “brain development of a child.” She said he has seizures, walks with a limp, and cannot read or write.¹² Koehler asked the court to ensure Medina is treated for epilepsy, seizures, asthma, and tuberculosis, saying he needs at least eight medications.¹³

After the shank was found in his pocket at the jail, the defense characterized it as self-protection by a “severely disabled” person who had recently been moved out of the jail hospital into a more populated area.¹² No court-ordered competency evaluation or independent expert assessment had been publicly reported as of early June 2026.

Immigration History and the Sanctuary Policy Dispute

The Department of Homeland Security has identified Medina as a Venezuelan national who entered the United States in May 2023 and was taken into custody by Border Patrol.⁶ He was released. Two months later he was arrested for shoplifting $134 of merchandise from a Macy’s in downtown Chicago, charged with a misdemeanor, and released pending trial. He never returned to court, which left an outstanding warrant.¹⁴

After Medina’s arrest for Gorman’s killing, Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer. Under Illinois’s TRUST Act, state and local law enforcement are prohibited from honoring immigration detainers or notifying federal officials when an undocumented person is released.⁴

DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said Gorman “was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder.”⁶ President Donald Trump blamed the killing on the prior administration’s “open door policy.”¹⁵ Representative Mike Collins of Georgia, author of the House version of the Laken Riley Act, said that if the act had been law in 2023, “she would still be alive today.”¹⁶

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called the gaps “national failures” rooted in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson defended the city’s “Welcoming City” ordinance, saying it exists so that undocumented residents are not deterred from contacting police.¹⁵ Representative Brad Schneider, one of several Illinois Democrats who voted against the Laken Riley Act, accused critics of using Gorman’s death to “score cheap political points.”¹⁶

The Gorman Family’s Response

Thomas and Jessica Gorman and their daughter Madelon have appeared at hearings and spoken publicly. At the March 27 detention hearing, the family said, “Compassion cannot replace accountability. Justice, in this case, is not abstract. It is accountability. It is truth.”¹⁷ A family attorney added that what happened “was not a reflection of the Loyola community. It was the result of a failure outside of it.”

After the June 1 hearing, Thomas Gorman rejected the defense’s description of Medina. “It’s time to stop pretending this man is harmless and has the mentality of a child. He was a danger outside and he is apparently a danger inside.” He said responsibility runs further than the defendant: “Jose Medina is responsible for what he did to Sheridan, but he did not get to Sheridan himself. He got there through a broken system, through failed border enforcement, failed removal policies, failed local cooperation, and sanctuary policies that put ideology before safety.”¹²

Jessica Gorman described the shooting itself: “Forty feet, that’s how far my daughter ran for her life before evil caught her. I know that my baby died scared.”¹²

1
WTTW News. Man Charged in Fatal Shooting of Loyola Freshman Sheridan Gorman to Be Detained Pending Trial
2
Chicago Sun-Times. Woman, 18, Shot to Death in Predawn Rogers Park Attack
3
ABC 7 Chicago. Jose Medina Facing Federal Charges in Shooting Death of Loyola Student Sheridan Gorman
4
ABC 7 Chicago. Case of Sheridan Gorman Suspect Jose Medina’s Alleged Immigration Status Creates New Friction Point
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Chicago Sun-Times. Sheridan Gorman Loyola Murder: Jose Medina
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NewsNation. Sheridan Gorman Chicago Student: Venezuelan National Charged
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Loyola Phoenix. Suspect in Murder of Sheridan Gorman Receives New Charges in Federal Court
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CBS News Chicago. Jose Medina Found With Weapon in Cook County Jail
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New York Post. Illegal Immigrant Accused of Killing Sheridan Gorman Is Missing Brain Part, Defense Lawyer Claims
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ABC 7 Chicago. Jose Medina Pleads Not Guilty, Faces Victim’s Parents in Court
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WGN TV. Man Charged in Murder of Loyola Student Sheridan Gorman Returns to Court
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Chicago Sun-Times. Sheridan Gorman Jose Medina Loyola Shooting
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CBS News Chicago. Jose Medina Court Appearance: Loyola Student Shooting
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WGN TV. What We Know About Loyola Murder Suspect Jose Medina
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Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Crime, Trump, Pritzker, Immigration
16
Fox News. IL Dems Decline to Defend No Votes on Laken Riley Act After Student’s Killing
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ABC 7 Chicago. Jose Medina Due in Court in Death of Loyola Student Sheridan Gorman