A Chicago man arrested and accused of gunning down a Loyola University Chicago student was in the country illegally and captured in part because of his “distinct” limp, officials said Monday.
Sheridan Gorman, 18, was killed shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday near Tobey Prinz Beach Park, less than a mile from campus, police said.
Jose Medina, 25, was arrested Friday night and booked on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and other gun-related charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Gorman, who was from the New York City suburb of Yorktown Heights.
Medina did not appear in court Monday, as he was taken to the hospital and treated for tuberculosis, police said.
The gunman ore black clothes and a black mask when he allegedly shot Gorman in the back in early Thursday, according to a Chicago police arrest report released Monday.
Witnesses described and nearby security cameras showed the shooter walking with a distinct limp and slow gait,” according to the report.
Cameras then caught Medina entering his apartment house on North Sheridan Road, and a building engineer identified him as a resident, the police report said.
Police found clothing and shoes in Medina’s apartment that appeared to match what the shooter was wearing, a prosecutor said. Officers also found a .40-caliber handgun, which was consistent with the round that killed Gorman, according to the state.
A judge ruled there was probable cause to push the prosecution forward and hold Medina in custody.
Medina had previously been “apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol and released into the country,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
He was released again on June 19, 2023, following a shoplifting arrest in Chicago, federal officials said.
Gorman was “failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement.
The office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lashed out at the White House on Monday, alleging it was seeking to score political points off Gorman’s slaying.
“Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and Loyola University community grieving the senseless murder of Sheridan Gorman,” according to the governor’s office.
“Violent crime has no place in our streets, and we expect the alleged perpetrator to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The Trump Administration needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies and instead focus on real solutions, like reinstating federal funds to prevent violence that support our public safety efforts.”
The arrest report did not make it clear what, if any, motive Medina might have had for the attack.
“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” Gorman’s family said in a statement.
“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,” the family said.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether Medina had hired or been appointed a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
Gorman’s slaying could take center stage in the nation’s ongoing debate over immigration in the same manner as Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s murder in 2024.
The suspect in her slaying, Venezuelan citizen Jose Antonio Ibarra, illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 near El Paso, Texas, authorities have said.
The Trump administration frequently invokes Riley’s name in its justification of mass deportations and other anti-immigration actions.
Riley’s family has asked that her name not be used in the public debate.
“I’d rather her not be such a political, how you say — it started a storm in our country,” father Jason Riley told NBC’s “TODAY” show a month after his daughter’s death, “and it’s incited a lot of people.”
