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A progressive Chicago lawmaker apologized Tuesday after facing backlash for suggesting a murdered college student was in “the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Last Thursday, Sheridan Gorman, 18, of Westchester County, New York, was shot and killed while walking with friends around 1:30 a.m. along the Chicago lakefront.
Councilwoman Maria Hadden sparked outrage on social media after suggesting in an interview with Fox 32 Chicago that the Loyola University Chicago student was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” and may have “scared” the individual who shot and killed her.
The local Democrat’s comments were called insensitive and also sparked a response from Gorman’s family, who referenced her comments.
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Chicago Councilwoman Maria Hadden came under fire online for her response to the murder of Sheridan Gorman. (End of Awakening via X/Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)
Hadden, a progressive ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, issued a statement Tuesday saying her interview on Fox 32 had “gone viral in 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 meaningless situation, I said things that some people didn’t like,” he said. “My comments were never intended to blame the victim or imply that Sheridan should not have been enjoying the park or that it was his fault he was shot.
“In the interview, I did my best to share the limited information I had with our community as quickly as possible while also helping to address the fears people had about the shooting,” Hadden continued. “I sincerely apologize for any additional pain my comments may have caused.”
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Sheridan Gorman, a student at Loyola University, was murdered in Chicago on March 19, 2026. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram))
He added: “The fact that some media outlets are intentionally creating sound bites to misinterpret my words during this tragedy is also unfortunate.”
Gorman’s family referenced Hadden’s comments in the Fox 32 interview, saying the slain college student “deserved the future that was stolen from her.”
“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 full of milestones that will now never come. Our family has been changed forever.”
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New York native Sheridan Gorman was reportedly just months away from completing her freshman year at Loyola University Chicago in Illinois. (Sheridan G. Gorman via Instagram)
The family added: “We cannot accept a world where moments like this become something people become accustomed 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 themselves.”
José Medina-Medina was arrested and charged with Gorman’s murder.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Medina is an illegal immigrant who entered the United States during the Biden administration before being detained and released into the country.
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DHS said the 25-year-old Venezuelan national was previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.