The Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had lodged an arrest detainer asking Illinois officials not to release a suspect, who is a Venezuelan migrant, according to the agency, and who has been taken into custody in connection with Thursday’s shooting death of a Loyola University freshman.
Chicago police announced Sunday evening they had charged 25-year-old Jose Medina of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood with first-degree murder, attempted murder in the first degree, three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.
Widely used police databases alert ICE to arrests of immigrants on its radar, after which the federal agency can send special requests, called detainers, to ask local cops to hold them until a federal agent can retrieve them. But with an increasingly frustrated White House pushing higher arrest quotas, enforcement has evolved to actions aimed at making easy, bulk arrests — regardless of someone’s rap sheet.
According to DHS, the suspect in the Loyola slaying was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and then released.
Cook County court records show the suspect has a single misdemeanor charge for shoplifting from the State Street Macy’s in June 2023. A judge issued a warrant for him in that case after he failed to appear for a court date. Records show the warrant was still outstanding as of September 2023. DHS did not immediately respond to a Tribune inquiry about whether ICE ever lodged an arrest detainer in the shoplifting case.
Medina’s detention hearing is set for Monday. In December 2024, Cook County prosecutors said they would begin seeking pretrial detention in all first-degree murder offenses.
Loyola student Sheridan Gorman, 18, was shot shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday on the Loyola Beach Pier.
Her family released a statement Sunday night after charges were announced, thanking law enforcement and those “who worked quickly” in the investigation and arrest.
“Their efforts matter. But this is not justice— it is the first step toward it,” the statement said. “This case must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both state and federal law. There can be no gaps, no shortcuts, and no second chances that put others at risk. Accountability must be complete.”
They also acknowledged Medina’s “prior encounters with the system.”
“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” the family said. “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.”
An arrest report obtained by the Tribune offers no information about a possible motive for the shooting. It states that witnesses told police a man wearing black clothes and a black mask pointed a gun at Gorman and fired one round at her as she tried to run away.
Nearby surveillance video captured the suspect a few minutes after the shooting walking westbound to Pratt Avenue, according to the report. Police were able to identify the man, in part, because of his “distinct limp.” The suspect then entered a nearby apartment building, the report stated, and appeared on the building’s internal surveillance cameras without a mask.
A police report stated Rogers Park (24th) District police found Gorman on the pier in Rogers Park with a gunshot wound to the back.
Officers recovered a single shell casing about 40 feet from Gorman’s body, the report stated. Police said in a statement she’d been walking with friends when a gunman walked up to them, pulled out a weapon and fired at them.
Gorman, of Yorktown Heights, New York, was studying business at Loyola and involved with the Christian campus group Cru, friends said.
Classmates described Gorman as cheerful and “always smiling,” with a good reputation around campus despite the short time she’d spent there.
In a statement released Saturday morning, Gorman’s family said she had been out with her friends Thursday in hopes of seeing the northern lights.
“What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the statement said. “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.”
Chicago Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky, Tess Kenny, Madeline King, Joe Mahr and Greg Pratt contributed.
