A 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant faces questioning within the execution-style capturing loss of life of 18-year-old Loyola College freshman Sheridan Gorman in Chicago.
The incident occurred round 1:30 a.m. on Thursday close to Lake Michigan, the place Gorman walked with mates. A person wearing black emerged from bushes and shot her within the head. Paramedics pronounced her lifeless on the scene.
Chicago police recognized the suspect, who resides in Rogers Park, on account of his distinct limp. Authorities maintain him in custody however haven’t but filed prices. Courtroom data present a previous misdemeanor shoplifting conviction from a Macy’s retailer in June 2023.
Household’s Heartbreaking Assertion
Sheridan’s dad and mom, Thomas and Jessica Gorman from Yorktown Heights, New York, arrived in Chicago that evening to retrieve her physique. In an announcement, the household expressed profound grief: “Our beloved daughter, Sheridan, was taken from us this morning in Chicago. There is no such thing as a strategy to soften this – this was homicide. Sheridan was the sunshine of our lives. She made folks really feel seen, protected, and beloved just by being who she was.”
They continued: “She lived her religion with kindness, compassion, and pleasure, and he or she beloved her household and mates deeply. We trusted that she could be protected. That belief was damaged. Somebody made a deliberate selection that stole our daughter and perpetually modified our household.” The household calls for solutions and vows to pursue justice.
Victor’s All-American Life
Gorman grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb in Westchester County, attending the extremely rated Yorktown Excessive College. Her household resides in a $1 million house. Jessica Gorman usually shares on-line posts celebrating her nation, veterans, and the American flag.
In Could 2025, she introduced Sheridan’s dedication to Loyola, a non-public Jesuit college on Chicago’s north aspect: “So extremely pleased with our sassy but so candy Sheridan Grace!” Images confirmed Sheridan surrounded by school merchandise.
Sheridan regularly posted about her religion, mates, and household on social media. Her profile featured a Bible verse from Corinthians: “Let all that you simply do be performed in love.” Days earlier than her loss of life, she shared St. Patrick’s Day pictures with mates, captioned “The place’s my kiss?” Earlier in March, she wrote “Hotter days forward!” whereas posing across the metropolis.
Police Investigation and Context
Investigators consider Gorman was not the meant goal and describe the assault as random. Chicago Alderman Maria Hadden, involved with police, acknowledged Gorman was “on the mistaken place on the mistaken time.”
Related Excessive-Profile Instances
The random nature of the killing attracts parallels to different incidents. In February 2024, nursing pupil Laken Riley, 22, died throughout a jog on the College of Georgia campus. Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who entered the U.S. illegally, obtained a life sentence for her homicide after prior arrests for youngster endangerment and shoplifting.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross highlighted the brutality throughout trial: “He put enormous holes in her head with a rock. And he did it greater than as soon as. And there could possibly be no different cause to try this, apart from to silence her perpetually.”
Riley’s case echoed the 2018 homicide of College of Iowa pupil Mollie Tibbetts, 20, killed whereas jogging. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a Mexican nationwide within the U.S. illegally, was convicted and sentenced to life in jail.
9 days into his second time period, President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, requiring detention of sure immigrants arrested for crimes like theft or assault on legislation enforcement.
