Image Credit: Instagram | @sheridang.gorma 
A suspect arrested for the unprovoked murder of a teenage girl in the sanctuary state of Illinois last week has been identified as a ‘Venezuelan migrant,’ according to reports.
The shocking ambush unfolded just before 1:30 a.m. on Thursday in Chicago.
Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old student at Loyola University Chicago, was reportedly walking with friends on the Loyola Beach Pier in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights when a masked man approached the group from behind and shot the girl in the back, witnesses say.
Gorman was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The suspect fled on foot but was reportedly caught by surveillance cameras while entering a nearby apartment building with his mask off.
Investigators noted the man had a “distinct limp” and authorities took him into custody on Friday night.
The suspect, who has not yet been named, is a 25-year-old ‘migrant’ from Venezuela, according to an arrest report reviewed by the Chicago Tribune.
Court records indicate the Venezuelan was busted in 2023 for shoplifting at a Macy’s department store in Cook County, but was subsequently released on his own recognizance “by rule of the court.”
At the time of the incident, the suspect reportedly listed his home address as a ‘migrant shelter’ at Leone Beach Park in Chicago.
After he failed to appear for several court dates, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
It is unclear if the Venezuelan has been charged in Thursday’s shooting at the time of this writing.
Gorman’s family issued the following statement in response to a Chicago Sun-Times headline claiming the victim had simply been in the “wrong place, wrong time.”
She was exactly where she should have been — close to campus, surrounded by friends, living her life. What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 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.
Sheridan was our daughter, our sister, and the heart of our family. She was full of life, full of kindness, and full of a love that she gave freely to everyone around her. She made people feel seen. She made people feel valued. Whether it was her friends, her family, or someone she had just met, Sheridan had a way of leaving people better than she found them.
Sheridan deserved a full life. She deserved the future that was taken from her. We will not allow her to be remembered as just another story. She was extraordinary, and she will always be loved.
We cannot accept a world where moments like this become something people grow used to. We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to violence. When we begin to accept these tragedies as inevitable, we all become vulnerable to them. Apathy is not harmless — it allows these moments to repeat.
Sheridan Gorman, who hailed from Yorktown Heights, New York, is survived by her parents, sister, and extended family.
An investigation is ongoing.
We have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information and updates will be published as they become available.
