Loyola University mourns student killed in Chicago shooting: ‘We are heavy with grief’

The Loyola University Chicago student who was shot and killed last week was a “beautiful person” and a “genuine soul,” campus leaders said amid mourning over the 18-year-old’s murder.

Sheridan Gorman was shot and killed early on March 19 while walking with her friends near the Jesuit university’s campus, officials said last week.

Law enforcement has alleged that 25-year-old Jose Medina carried out the killing. Medina had reportedly been observed acting strangely in the area; witnesses said he opened fire on Gorman and her friends when they walked nearby.

Medina was living in the country illegally, police said. Federal immigration officials have placed a detainer against him in order to arrest him if he is released from police custody, while local officials in Chicago are moving to prosecute him for the murder.

‘Compassionate, selfless, kind’

The Catholic university mourned the news of Gorman’s passing, with leadership lamenting the loss of the New York state native who was just finishing up her freshman year there.

Loyola Cru, a Christian campus ministry at the school, said in an Instagram post that Gorman was “an absolute delight.”

The group described her as “compassionate, selfless, kind, generous, joyful, willing, and so much fun. A beautiful person and a genuine soul.”

The Christian student organization said it was “heavy with grief” but that it was “hold[ing] that in tension with the reality that Jesus is our refuge and shelter.”

“The darkness of this world does not overshadow the light of Christ’s love,” the group wrote.

Gorman’s obituary said she “loved [her faith] fiercely” along with “her family, her friends, [and] her community.” A native of Yorktown Heights, New York, she is survived by her mother, Jessica, and father, Thomas, as well as her sister, Madelon.

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.”

“She had a way of making everyone feel special, seen, and loved,” the fundraiser said. “To know her was to be changed by her.”

In a letter to the school’s community, university President Mark Reed described Gorman’s death as a “tragic loss” for the school.

Reed urged the school to petition St. Joseph “to intercede for our grieving community and for the family of our beloved student Sheridan.” The school also hosted a memorial vigil for Gorman on March 19.

At an event at City Club Chicago on March 23, meanwhile, Cardinal Blase Cupich said he had spoken with Gorman’s parents amid their grief.

“Tom and Jessica … are taking this very hard,” the cardinal said.

The Chicago archbishop said Tom Gorman said to him on the phone: “Every parent says that their kid is the best in the world. But mine was.”

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/loyola-university-mourns-student-killed-in-chicago-shooting-we-are-heavy-with-grief