Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s April 1 social-media video marking National Walking Day drew criticism from some commentators and from the family of Loyola University Chicago freshman Sheridan Gorman, who was killed in a shooting March 19 while walking with friends near a Rogers Park lakefront pier. Police have charged 25-year-old Jose Medina with murder; federal officials have said he is a Venezuelan national who entered the U.S. unlawfully.
Sheridan Gorman, 18, a first-year student at Loyola University Chicago, was shot and killed early March 19 while she was walking with friends near Tobey Prinz Beach in the Rogers Park neighborhood, Chicago police and prosecutors have said.
Prosecutors allege the group walked onto a pier near a lighthouse when a masked man emerged from behind the structure and fired a single shot as the students ran, striking Gorman in the back. She was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, according to prosecutors’ account reported by local outlets.
Chicago police arrested a suspect over the weekend following the killing and charged him with first-degree murder and other offenses, according to local reporting. The suspect was identified in some reports as Jose Medina; other reports, including a statement attributed to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have referred to him as Jose Medina-Medina.
DHS has said the suspect is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States unlawfully after crossing the southern border in May 2023 and was later released. The Daily Wire, citing the Chicago Tribune, reported that he was later accused of shoplifting from a Macy’s store in Chicago and failed to appear in court, leading to an arrest warrant.
Four days after the killing, Pritzker’s office issued a statement of condolence, calling the shooting a “senseless murder” and saying, “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.” In comments reported by The Daily Wire, the governor’s office also criticized the Trump administration, urging it to focus on what it described as solutions such as reinstating federal funds to prevent violence rather than politicizing the case.
On April 1, Pritzker posted a video on social media that began, “Happy National Walking Day, Illinois,” and promoted walking in the state. The post prompted pushback online. Fox News correspondent Matt Finn wrote, “Wasn’t an innocent young 18-yo college girl senselessly murdered while out for a walk in Chicago? Happy walking, Illinois.” Fox News Radio host Jimmy Failla wrote in the comments section, “CRAZY how most people who go out walking in a sanctuary city end up running.”
Gorman’s family, in a statement cited by The Daily Wire and Fox News, criticized what they described as attempts to turn the case into a political argument. “Her death cannot be reduced to a general ‘tragedy,’ nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else,” the family said. “Our daughter is not a policy debate. She is a life that was taken, and that demands accountability.”
In a separate interview reported by Fox 32 Chicago, Pritzker said there were “real failures” in the nation’s immigration system and argued that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.
