The family of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman has criticized political leaders in Chicago and Illinois, rejecting descriptions of her killing as a 'senseless tragedy' and calling for accountability over what they believe were preventable failures.
Gorman, a freshman at Loyola University Chicago, was shot dead in the early hours of March 19 while she was with friends near a pier in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood.
Police allege that Jose Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national, fired a single shot that killed her.
The family says 'senseless' label falls short, pushing back against comments made by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both of whom had described the killing as a tragedy.
'What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to a 'senseless tragedy,' the family said, stressing that she was 'doing something entirely normal' and 'should be here.'
They added that simply calling the incident 'senseless' was 'not enough' and demanded 'a clear and honest accounting of what went wrong.'
The family further said they would not allow her life to be reduced to 'a talking point or a generalisation,' urging leaders to confront 'hard truths' to ensure such an incident is not repeated.
