> Last night, prosecutors charged a Venezuelan migrant with the murder of Loyola freshman Sheridan Gorman.

A Venezuelan migrant is charged with murdering a Loyola University student as she walked with friends along the Main at Loyola Beach early Thursday, Chicago police announced Sunday evening.

The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that it had lodged an arrest detainer asking Chicago officials not to release the man, describing him as “a Venezuelan criminal illegal alien.”

Jose Medina, 25, of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road, will be in court for a detention hearing on Monday, CPD said. DHS identified him as Jose Medina-Medina.

In a social media post, DHS claimed “Medina-Medina shot and killed Gorman Thursday morning while she was walking in a park with friends. Medina-Medina approached her while wearing a mask and armed with a gun. As she attempted to flee, he fired his gun and shot her. Gorman was pronounced dead at the scene.”

The federal agency also claimed that “Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration. He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”

DHS concluded by saying, “Illinois sanctuary politicians and Governor Pritzker must work with us to ensure this public safety threat is NEVER released back into our neighborhoods again.”

As CWB Chicago reported this weekend, CPD investigators executed a search warrant at an apartment in the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road shortly before 9 p.m. Friday, recovering a firearm and detaining a 25-year-old man. The building sits less than two blocks from the Main where Gorman was killed around 1:11 a.m. Thursday.

Her companions told police they were walking along the Main when a masked man appeared near the light beacon and fired once, apparently without warning or provocation. Detectives used footage from multiple cameras to track the suspect to the apartment building, where additional footage showed Medina without a face covering, sources said. Someone associated with the building recognized Medina from the footage.

The firearm recovered during the search warrant execution was sent to a laboratory to determine whether it was the weapon that fired the fatal shot.

Medina is charged with first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault by discharging a firearm, and aggravated possession of a weapon.

Court records show Medina was arrested in mid-June 2023 for allegedly shoplifting $132 worth of merchandise from the Macy’s at 111 North State Street in the Loop. At the time, he listed his address as 1222 West Touhy Avenue in Rogers Park, the address of Leone Beach Park, where the fieldhouse had been converted into a migrant shelter by City Hall. Leone Beach Park forms the northern boundary of Loyola Beach.

Records show Medina was released on his own recognizance and never appeared for a court date. After his first failure to appear in July 2023, Judge Peter Gonzalez granted a 30-day continuance. When a Macy’s representative appeared for the rescheduled date and Medina again did not show, Gonzalez issued an arrest warrant requiring a $50 deposit for release from jail. But Medina was never apprehended on that warrant until Friday’s search warrant.

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