Loyola University Chicago was shaken last week when someone shot and killed one of its students, Sheridan Gorman, as she walked with friends near Lake Michigan.
For days, the police said little about what happened, only that “an unknown male offender” had approached the group at about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, displayed a gun and fired in their direction. Ms. Gorman, 18, who was recalled by friends as generous and fun, was killed.
As Ms. Gorman’s family and friends grieved, her death was thrust into the nation’s contentious immigration debate on Sunday when the Trump administration said that a man arrested in connection with the killing was from Venezuela and in the United States illegally.
“She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians,” said Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, in a statement that called for the man to remain in jail.
The man, Jose Medina, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, the Chicago Police Department said on Sunday. Mr. Medina, whose name was rendered as Jose Medina-Medina by federal officials, was arrested on Friday and expected to make an initial court appearance on Monday. It was not known whether he has a lawyer.
It was not clear from police records whether Mr. Medina, who the police said lived near the Loyola campus on Chicago’s Far North Side, had any connection to the university or to Ms. Gorman, who was from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., in Westchester County. Her family said in a statement to NBC Chicago that she had been outside on Thursday morning hoping “to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights.”
“Our daughter’s life was taken, and our family will never be the same,” the Gorman family said in a statement shared with The Chicago Tribune on Sunday. “She was doing something entirely normal — walking with friends, close to home, in an area where she had every reason to feel safe. There was nothing unusual about her being there. There was nothing that should have placed her in harm’s way.”
President Trump and his allies have repeatedly pointed to crimes committed by undocumented people as evidence of failed Democratic policies. During the 2024 campaign, the killing of Laken Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, by a Venezuelan man became a central political issue.
Since returning to the White House, Mr. Trump, who ran on a promise to crack down on illegal immigration, has repeatedly criticized Chicago and its political leaders over immigration policies. Hundreds of immigration agents were sent to the Chicago area last year, where they made hundreds of arrests, clashed repeatedly with protesters and engaged in conduct that alarmed federal judges.
The city and the state of Illinois have rules that restrict cooperation with federal agents on civil immigration enforcement. The Trump administration has argued that those restrictions are unconstitutional, though a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit that challenged those policies.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday that Mr. Medina was “released into the country under the Biden administration” in May 2023 after coming into contact with Border Patrol agents. Federal officials said Mr. Medina was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Chicago about a month later, in June 2023, and released. The status of that case could not immediately be determined.
Chicago has long struggled with violent crime, but the number of criminal homicides has declined significantly from a Covid-era spike. According to data published by the Chicago police, there had been 75 homicides in the city this year through March 15. That figure was roughly the same as during the same period in 2025, but down sharply from several earlier years.
In the days since Ms. Gorman was killed, Loyola students have gathered to mourn, and university officials have sought to assure the campus that they were not aware of any continuing threat.
Loyola is a Jesuit university with about 17,500 students. Its main campus is situated near the northern edge of Chicago’s city limits, about nine miles up the lakefront from downtown.
Those who knew Ms. Gorman described her on social media and in local media accounts as having made a strong impression in her short time on campus.
“Sheridan was an absolute delight,” Cru, a Christian ministry at Loyola, said in a social media post. “Compassionate, selfless, kind, generous, joyful, willing and so much fun.”
The group added that “there aren’t enough words to sum up a life like hers or to explain how much we’ll miss her.”
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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