Mother of slain Loyola student blasts Chicago alderwoman's 'wrong place, wrong time' remark

The mother of slain Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman condemned comments from a Chicago alderwoman who described her daughter's death as being in the "wrong place at the wrong time." Authorities say Gorman was shot and killed by Jose Medina-Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, as the family shared their grief in an interview Thursday on "The Story."

"Someone said, 'wrong place, wrong time,' the alderwoman, and actually, suggested that she might have startled this man, and that just, it flays me," Jess Gorman, Sheridan's mother, told anchor Martha MacCallum. "It just lays my heart wide open. My daughter was not in the wrong place at the wrong time—this man was."

Chicago Alderwoman Maria Hadden later apologized, saying conservative media misconstrued her remarks, which she said compared Gorman's death to a separate case. The apology offered little comfort to the family.

Sheridan Gorman, a freshman at Loyola University Chicago, was shot and killed in March. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Medina-Medina was released from custody twice despite active Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. In 2023, Border Patrol apprehended him before releasing him. Later that year, authorities arrested and released him again after a shoplifting incident.

"ICE could have saved our daughter twice," Jess Gorman said. "To me, things like that show that they value these undocumented migrants more than they value our American citizens, our American children."

The family expressed outrage over Chicago's approach to immigration enforcement. "When they're naming trucks and laughing and joking several days after our daughter was murdered, we're waiting in Chicago to claim her body," Jess Gorman said. She referenced a city snowplow named "Abolish ICE" days after the shooting. "It was more than infuriating. I don't have, the vitriol that I felt was overwhelming."

Sheridan's sister Madelon Gorman said, "She was supposed to be my maid of honor, one day, right beside me. I'm supposed to be the aunt of her children. It's something you never, ever expect to happen to you, to happen to your sibling, your best friend, your daughter."

The Gormans said they are not a partisan family. Jess Gorman noted she has never fought with people over politics. But Sheridan’s father, Tom Gorman, questioned local policies. "I have to live every day with a choice in my head: Was my daughter an unintended consequence of good policy or the consequence of bad policy? And I know the answer for me," he said.

Medina-Medina pleaded not guilty at his arraignment last month. He faces charges of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated discharge of a firearm and illegal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors said Gorman encountered him near a lighthouse. After she alerted her friends, he chased the group and shot her in the back.

In March, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledged failures in the case. "There have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. That’s their national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst," Pritzker said.