The Loyola University Chicago student who was shot to death last week was a “beautiful human being” and a “real soul,” campus leaders said as they mourned the 18-year-old student’s killing.
Sheridan Gorman was shot to death while walking with friends near the campus of Jesuit University on the morning of March 19, authorities said last week.
Law enforcement has alleged that 25-year-old Jose Medina carried out the murder. Medina was reportedly seen acting strange in the area; Witnesses said he opened fire on Gorman and his friends as they walked nearby.
Medina was living in the country illegally, police said. Federal immigration authorities have taken a detainer against him to arrest him upon his release from police custody, while local authorities in Chicago are moving to prosecute him for murder.
‘Kind, selfless, compassionate’
Catholic University mourned the news of Gorman’s passing, with leadership mourning the passing of the New York State native, who was completing his first year there.
Loyola Crews, a Christian campus ministry at the school, said an instagram post That Gorman was “extremely pleased”.
The group described him as “kind, selfless, kind, generous, joyful, willing, and a lot of fun. A beautiful person and a real soul.”
The Christian Student Organization said it was “heavy with grief” but that it was “in tension with the reality that Jesus is our shelter and refuge.”
“The darkness of this world does not overpower the light of Christ’s love,” the group wrote.
Gorman’s obituary She said she “deeply loves her family, her friends and (and) her community as well as (her) faith.” A native of Yorktown Heights, New York, she is survived by her mother, Jessica, and father, Thomas, as well as her sister, Madelyn.
A GoFundMe set up to raise money for a memorial scholarship in Gorman’s honor said she “loved Jesus, her family… her lifelong friends and the simple, beautiful moments that made up her life.”
“He had a way of making everyone feel special, seen and loved,” the fundraiser said. “To know him was to be changed by him.”
In a letter to the school community, university president Mark Reed called Gorman’s death a “tragic loss” for the school.
Reed urged the school to petition St. Joseph’s “to intercede for our bereaved community and the family of our beloved student Sheridan.” The school also held a memorial ceremony for Gorman on March 19.
Meanwhile, at an event at the City Club Chicago on March 23, Cardinal Blaise Cupich said he had spoken to Gorman’s parents amid their grief.
“Tom and Jessica … are taking this very seriously,” Cardinal said.
The Chicago archbishop said Tom Gorman told him on the phone: “Every parent says their child is the best in the world. But mine was.”
