A Chicago alderwoman is facing backlash after suggesting an 18-year-old college student shot dead on the city’s lakefront may have been in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ – and could have ‘startled’ her killer.

José Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan man, is charged with murdering 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, a freshman at Loyola University in Chicago. 

Gorman was gunned down in the early hours of Thursday while walking with friends near the pier at Loyola Beach, with a gunshot to the head. 

Within hours of the killing, Ald. Maria Hadden addressed constituents in a video message that has since sparked outrage across the political spectrum.

‘The kids were out doing normal things people do in the neighborhood and it sounds like this might have been a “wrong place, wrong time”, running into a person who had a gun,’ Hadden said. 

‘They might have startled this person at the end of the pier, unintentionally.’

The remarks triggered immediate condemnation, with critics accusing the progressive lawmaker of minimizing the killing and shifting blame onto the victim.

‘This is disgusting,’ comedian Tim Young wrote on X.

‘Unbelievable,’ posted Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute. ‘Perhaps these politicians can put out a comprehensive list of the places we should avoid and the times we should avoid them so as not to get shot to death by strangers.’

Ald. Maria Hadden said Sheridan Gorman’s shooting may have been a ‘wrong place, wrong time’ encounter

Sheridan Gorman, 18, was shot and killed while walking with friends near Loyola Beach in Chicago around 1:30am on Thursday

Jose Medina-Medina, the Venezuelan national accused of killing an 18-year-old college student, was caught by US Border Patrol on May 9, 2023 but was released into the US

Reader-funded outlet CWB Chicago added: ‘Imagine being an alderman, having a college freshman murdered in your ward, and, before the suspect is even identified, posting a video in which you brainstorm an excuse that maybe the victim ‘startled’ the guy who killed her.’

New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino also weighed in, writing: ‘This is how most Democrats think about crime, she’s just saying it out loud.’

The backlash only intensified as more details emerged about the killing and as Gorman’s grieving family forcefully rejected the very language Hadden used.

In a statement, the family pushed back not only on the alderwoman’s remarks but also on a Chicago Sun-Times headline that described the killing as ‘wrong place, wrong time.’

‘She was exactly where she should have been – close to campus, surrounded by friends, living her life,’ the family said.

‘What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is not an abstraction. This is the loss of a daughter. The loss of a sister. The loss of a future filled with milestones that will now never come. Our family is forever changed.

‘We cannot accept a world where moments like this become something people grow used to. We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to violence. When we begin to accept these tragedies as inevitable, we all become vulnerable to them. Apathy is not harmless – it allows these moments to repeat,’ they added.

‘Sheridan deserved a full life. She deserved the future that was taken from her,’ the family stated. ‘We will not allow her to be remembered as just another story.’ 

Gorman, 18, had traveled from Yorktown Heights, New York, to begin her freshman year at Loyola, where she quickly became part of campus life. Friends and classmates later described her as vibrant and deeply rooted in her faith.

Within hours of the killing, Ald. Maria Hadden addressed constituents in a video message that has since sparked outrage across the political spectrum

Sheridan is pictured with her mother Jessica Gorman. The mom posts frequently online about her love for her country, veterans, and protecting the American flag

Sheridan grew up in Yorktown Heights, New York, an upper-middle-class suburb in Westchester County, and lived in a $1 million home with her parents until college (Pictured: Sheridan sits on her bed with Loyola Merch in May 2025, ahead of her first semester in the fall)

Police say Gorman and her friends were strolling on the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach (seen in a stock image) a mile from the campus when she was shot 

She was killed around 1:30am on Thursday as she and a group of friends walked along the pier near the university’s Lake Shore Campus. 

According to investigators, a masked gunman dressed in black approached and opened fire without warning.

Sources familiar with the investigation told CWB Chicago there was no indication of any altercation or provocation. 

When Gorman and her friends crossed paths with the shooter near the pier’s light beacon, he fired a single shot according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. She died at the scene.  

Surveillance footage from multiple cameras was used to track the suspect to a nearby apartment building on North Sheridan Road, less than two blocks from where the shooting occurred. 

A firearm recovered during a search warrant execution has been sent for ballistic testing to determine whether it was used in the killing.

Sheridan Gorman, second from right, is pictured smiling in happier times with her friends in Florida last summer. The young woman was murdered on the street in the senseless killing 

The man initially detained had not been publicly charged at the time of those reports, and authorities had not formally named him in connection with Gorman’s death.

However, the Department of Homeland Security later identified a suspect in custody as José Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national.

According to DHS, Medina-Medina was first apprehended by US Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, during the Biden administration, and was released into the country.

Just over a month later, on June 19, 2023, he was arrested in Chicago for allegedly shoplifting $132 worth of merchandise from a Macy’s and was once again released.

Court records show he failed to appear for subsequent hearings, leading a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. He was never apprehended on that warrant.

Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis condemned the case in a statement.

Gorman’s family rejected the framing of her killing as ‘wrong place, wrong time’. The family said her death was ‘the loss of a daughter… a sister… a future filled with milestones’ 

‘Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life.’

‘She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,’ Bis added.

The killing has also raised fresh questions about early assurances from officials.

Hadden told constituents the day after the shooting that police believed there was ‘no broader threat’ to the community, while Loyola University President Mark Reed said there was ‘no ongoing threat to our campus community’ – both statements were made while the suspect remained unidentified and at large.