A progressive Chicago lawmaker issued an apology Tuesday after facing backlash for suggesting a slain college student was in the 'wrong place at the wrong time.'
Last Thursday, Sheridan Gorman, 18, of Westchester County, New York, was gunned down while taking a walk with friends around 1:30 a.m. along Chicago's lakefront near the Loyola University Chicago campus.
What the Right Is Saying
The family of Sheridan Gorman responded directly to Hadden's remarks, rejecting the framing that their daughter was in the wrong place.
'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,' the family said in a statement.
The family added: '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.'
Critics on social media and in political commentary labeled Hadden's original comments as insensitive and victim-blaming, with some conservatives pointing to the suspect's immigration status as a complicating factor in the debate over public safety.
What the Left Is Saying
Alderwoman Maria Hadden, a progressive ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, released a statement Tuesday saying her interview on Fox 32 had 'gone viral on conservative media' and that her comments were in response to a question comparing Gorman's murder to a separate 2018 case.
'In an effort to make sense of a senseless situation, I said things that landed wrong with some people,' she said. 'My comments were never intended to blame the victim or to imply that Sheridan should not have been out enjoying the park or that it was her fault that she was shot.'
Hadden added that she tried to share limited information with the community as quickly as possible while addressing fears about the shooting. 'I sincerely apologize for any additional pain that my comments may have caused,' she said.
She also noted that some media outlets were 'intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy.'
What the Numbers Show
Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old and a student at Loyola University Chicago. She was from Westchester County, New York.
The shooting occurred around 1:30 a.m. last Thursday along Chicago's lakefront.
The suspect, Jose Medina-Medina, is a 25-year-old Venezuelan national who was in the U.S. illegally after entering during the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS confirmed that Medina-Medina was previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago before being apprehended and released into the country.
He has been charged with Gorman's murder.
The Bottom Line
The controversy over Hadden's comments highlights the sensitivity required when discussing victims of violent crime, particularly in cases that draw political attention due to the suspect's immigration status.
Hadden's apology acknowledged that her words caused additional pain to a grieving family, while maintaining that she did not intend to blame the victim.
The case has drawn national attention amid ongoing debates about immigration enforcement, urban violence, and the responsibilities of local officials in communicating about crimes that affect community safety.
The family has called for society not to become desensitized to violence, emphasizing that Sheridan Gorman 'deserved the future that was stolen from her.'