The investigation into Sheridan Gorman’s death quickly turned on surveillance footage, witness observations and a handgun later recovered in Rogers Park.
CHICAGO, Ill. — The killing of Loyola University Chicago freshman Sheridan Gorman near Tobey Prinz Beach has been pieced together through witness accounts, surveillance video and ballistic evidence, according to court filings and public statements released after the March 19 shooting.
That evidence-heavy approach matters because the attack itself appears to have been brief, dark and chaotic. Police have said a masked man approached Gorman’s group on foot and fired a single shot before fleeing. With no public explanation of motive and early indications that Gorman may not have been the intended target, the case has depended less on any known relationship between victim and suspect and more on what cameras, casing evidence and movement patterns could show. That trail eventually led officers to a Rogers Park apartment and to charges against Jose Medina, 25.
One of the first anchor points in the case was the scene itself. Chicago police said officers responded to the 1000 block of West Pratt Boulevard after 1 a.m. on March 19 and found the 18-year-old victim shot. The Sun-Times, citing a police report, said Gorman and friends had been at the end of the pier when a man in all black clothes and a ski mask emerged and fired a single round. A shell casing was found roughly 40 feet away, according to that report. Later federal filings identified the location more precisely as 1054 W. Pratt Blvd. and said audio recordings recovered from the area captured a single gunshot at about 1:06 hours. That timestamp became a reference point for the video review that followed.
The second major piece was how witnesses described the person leaving. The federal complaint says people at the scene told investigators the gunman wore black clothing and a black mask and then walked westbound with a very distinct, slow gait. About six minutes after the gunshot, according to the filing, video showed a man dressed that way moving away from the beach area with a noticeable limp. Minutes later, cameras captured him traveling through the east alley of Sheridan Road and entering the rear of a building on North Sheridan Road. The complaint says the same man was then seen on interior lobby video without the mask, holding it in his hand while waiting for an elevator. A witness helping police with video review said he knew the subject to be a resident of that building and recognized the gait, according to the filing.
The third step was the search. Federal prosecutors said police drafted and executed a residential warrant at an apartment connected to Medina, who was found there and arrested. During the search, officers recovered a Smith & Wesson SW40VE .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol and also found mail bearing Medina’s name, according to the federal complaint. Agents later entered both the casing recovered at the March 19 homicide scene and a casing from a test fire of the recovered weapon into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. The complaint says a trained technician determined the system showed a presumptive lead associating the two items with the same firearm. In plain terms, investigators believe the gun found in the apartment was probably the one used in the shooting.
Only after that evidentiary trail was assembled did the public charging picture become clearer. Loyola told students that a suspect was brought in on March 20 and formally charged on March 22. Chicago police later named Medina and said he was charged with first-degree murder in Gorman’s death. A subsequent federal filing said he was also facing attempted murder, three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon in Cook County. On March 27, a judge detained him pretrial. Then on April 2, federal prosecutors added a separate firearm possession charge, alleging Medina, a Venezuelan citizen without lawful status in the United States, illegally possessed the handgun recovered during the search.
Against that evidence map, the human loss never left the center of the story. Gorman was a freshman from New York, identified by Loyola and remembered by relatives as a young woman at the start of adult life. The school said her death was a “tragic loss,” and students gathered for a vigil the same day she was killed. A neighbor told ABC7 she heard what sounded like a gunshot. A student quoted by local coverage said the sound woke him before he heard screams calling for help. Those details, small on their own, help explain why the case has remained vivid far beyond the courtroom record. It was a one-shot crime, but it left behind an unusually detailed trail.
The investigation now appears to have moved from finding a suspect to proving the case in court. What remains unfilled in the public record is motive, along with any fuller account of why the attacker was at the pier before Gorman and her friends arrived.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.