The illegal immigrant accused of murdering a college student in Chicago has a criminal record and entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to officials.
Twenty-five-year-old Jose Medina, a Venezuelan national, was arrested on Friday after he allegedly killed Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student in a shooting. A police source earlier told Fox News that the Thursday shooting was an apparent ambush, adding that the suspect was reportedly wearing some kind of face mask or covering. He was arrested in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, close to where the shooting took place.
Medina was expected in court on Monday afternoon, but the hearing was postponed since he’s still hospitalized. Chicago police sources said he was being quarantined for something that’s suspected to be contagious, possibly Tuberculosis.
When Gorman, who was a freshman from Westchester County, New York, tried to flee while she was with a group of friends, the gunman shot her, according to officials. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Medina was released on June 19, 2023, DHS said.
He was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, three felony counts of aggravated assault with discharge of firearm and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, according to the Chicago Police Department.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an arrest detainer against Medina following the alleged murder.
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“We are calling on Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.
In a new statement to Fox News, Gorman’s family said their daughter’s death was a result of systemic failure within the immigration system.
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“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime. 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,” the family 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.”
In October, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker posted a satirical video from the streets of Chicago while he was wearing a bullet-proof vest, trying to make a point about how safe the city is.
Alderwoman Maria Hadden told Fox 32 Chicago that Gorman’s death seemed to be a case of “wrong place at the wrong time.”
“The kids were out doing normal things people do in the neighborhood,” she said. “They may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, running into a person who had a gun.”
