Sheridan Gorman was walking with friends at Tobey Prinz Beach in the Rogers Park neighborhood, less than a mile from her campus, around 1 a.m. on March 19 when she was shot in the head and killed. The suspect, 25-year-old Jose Medina-Medina, was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and then released into the country under the Biden administration, Fox News Digital reported, citing the Department of Homeland Security.

Rather than direct her outrage at the system that allowed a released border crosser with an active arrest warrant to roam her ward, Hadden's first instinct was to explain away the killing, and then to cast herself as the one under threat.

The comments that ignited the backlash

In an interview with Fox 32 Chicago, Hadden suggested Gorman was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and floated the idea that the student might have "startled" the individual accused of killing her. The remarks drew immediate and intense criticism. Hadden then posted a Facebook story on Wednesday announcing her office would be closed for the remainder of the week, citing safety concerns.

Hadden framed the closure as a precaution, not a retreat. In her Facebook post, she stated:

"My team and I are taking these precautions to ensure our safety and ability to maintain the level of service that you expect of us. I am still working as usual and will be out and about in our ward this week."

She also offered an apology, of a kind. Hadden said she was trying "to make sense of a senseless situation" and acknowledged that her words "landed wrong with some people." But she paired the apology with a complaint about coverage:

"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."

She added:

"The fact that some media outlets are intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy is also unfortunate."

Nobody misconstrued anything. Hadden said what she said on camera. The backlash came from constituents and the public who heard the words plainly. Blaming "sound bites" for a problem created by your own mouth is a familiar move from officials who regret saying the quiet part out loud. It fits a broader pattern of progressive leaders retreating under grassroots pressure only after the damage is done.

Who Jose Medina-Medina is, and how the system failed

The facts around the suspect tell a story that Hadden's framing tried to avoid. The Department of Homeland Security stated that Medina-Medina was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and subsequently released into the United States under the Biden administration. Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital show that in 2023, Medina-Medina told officials he was living at the Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park, a facility being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants.

That shelter, according to the South Side Weekly, closed in 2024.

Also in 2023, prosecutors charged Medina-Medina with shoplifting after he allegedly stole just over $130 in merchandise from a Macy's in downtown Chicago. He failed to appear for his court hearing on that charge. A failure-to-appear warrant was issued. Court records show that warrant was still active when Gorman was killed.

Let that sink in. A man caught at the border, released, housed in a taxpayer-funded migrant shelter, charged with a crime, and then wanted on an outstanding warrant was still walking free in Rogers Park on the night an 18-year-old college student was murdered steps from her campus.

How the suspect was identified

An arrest report obtained by Fox News Digital described how investigators tracked Medina-Medina. After the shooting, he was captured on video in his apartment building's lobby, waiting for an elevator, unmasked. A building engineer told police he recognized the suspect, who had a "very distinct limp and gait." Images of the suspect were sent to a police database, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified him as Medina-Medina. He was arrested at his apartment in Rogers Park.

The identification came not from any proactive enforcement of the outstanding warrant, but from post-crime detective work. The warrant system that should have flagged Medina-Medina before March 19 apparently did nothing to remove him from the street.

A court hearing delayed, and a family in mourning

Medina-Medina was scheduled to appear in court on Monday, but the hearing was postponed because he is hospitalized with tuberculosis. A Cook County Sheriff's Office spokesman told Fox News Digital on Friday that Medina-Medina was in the medical division of the county jail. The hearing has been rescheduled for Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Sheridan Gorman's body was brought home to Yorktown Heights on Tuesday. Her family released a statement expressing gratitude to the Yorktown Police Department and the law enforcement agencies that escorted their daughter home:

"What could have been an unbearable journey was carried out with dignity, honor, and profound respect. We are deeply thankful for the care shown to our daughter and to our family in that moment."

The contrast between the Gorman family's grace and Hadden's defensive posture is hard to miss. One side buried a daughter. The other closed an office and blamed the media.

The progressive reflex: explain away, then hide

Hadden's response fits a recognizable template. When a crime exposes the consequences of progressive policies, sanctuary postures, lax warrant enforcement, catch-and-release immigration, the first instinct is not accountability. It is deflection. Blame the victim's choices. Blame the coverage. Apologize in passive voice. Then disappear behind "safety concerns."

This is the same instinct that drives progressive officials to retreat from their own positions only when the political heat becomes unbearable, not because they've reconsidered the substance. Hadden didn't close her office because she realized her framing was wrong. She closed it because the backlash made the office untenable.

And the backlash wasn't manufactured by media "sound bites." It came from people who heard a public official suggest that a murdered teenager bore some share of responsibility for being outside at night near her own school. That kind of reaction is organic. It is the sound of a community that has had enough of being told that the real problem is their expectations, not the failures of the people in charge.

The intra-left backlash that progressive figures increasingly face from their own supporters only underscores the fragility of a political coalition that cannot tolerate honest questions about public safety.

The questions that remain

The Step 1 record leaves several questions unanswered. What specific charges, if any, has Medina-Medina faced in connection with Gorman's killing? Why was the outstanding failure-to-appear warrant never enforced? What role, if any, did Chicago's sanctuary policies play in preventing cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities after the shoplifting charge?

These are the questions Hadden should have been asking on camera, not speculating about whether a college freshman "startled" the man who allegedly shot her in the head.

Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old, walking near her campus with friends. She didn't need to justify being outside. She needed a city that enforced its own warrants, held its borders, and expected its leaders to stand with victims instead of making excuses for the systems that failed them.

An alderwoman who closes her office over criticism but couldn't be bothered to direct her outrage at a broken system has told her constituents everything they need to know about her priorities.