Sheridan Gorman, 18, was walking with friends near Tobey Prinz Beach when a masked gunman opened fire, authorities said.
CHICAGO, IL — An 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student was shot and killed early Thursday while walking with friends on a pier near a Rogers Park beach just north of campus, and police said the gunman fled before officers arrived.
The killing of Sheridan Gorman shook Loyola’s lakefront campus and renewed questions about safety in the area around the school’s North Side grounds. Chicago police said detectives were investigating the shooting as a homicide and had not announced an arrest by Thursday evening. University leaders told students the victim was a first-year student and said they were working with law enforcement while trying to reassure students that there was no known ongoing threat to campus.
Police said Gorman was with a group in the 1000 block of West Pratt Boulevard at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday when an unknown man approached on foot and opened fire. The group was on the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach, a small public lakefront park along Lake Michigan and a short walk north of Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus. Authorities said Gorman was struck in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were immediately reported. Officers responding to the lakefront found an active crime scene stretching across the pier area in the dark hours before sunrise, with investigators marking evidence and closing off access while friends, classmates and neighbors tried to make sense of what happened. Loyola President Mark C. Reed, writing to the campus community later in the morning, called Gorman’s death “a tragic loss” and said the university’s heart was with her family and those who knew her.
Officials released only a narrow description of the shooter in the first hours after the attack. Police said the gunman wore a face covering and fled after firing toward the group. Investigators did not say Thursday whether Gorman was believed to have been targeted, whether the shooter said anything before opening fire, or whether witnesses saw the suspect run toward a vehicle or deeper into the neighborhood. Those unanswered questions became central to the investigation as detectives interviewed the friends who had been with her and worked to map the shooter’s path. Early reporting from the scene indicated the attack happened quickly and without warning. A university crime alert sent to students before dawn notified them that a homicide had occurred near the lakefront. Later Thursday morning, Reed told students and staff the school was in close contact with law enforcement and that, based on the information available at that point, there was no active threat to the Loyola community. Still, the lack of a motive and the brief suspect description left many basic facts unresolved by the end of the day.
The location added to the shock. Tobey Prinz Beach sits on the edge of Lake Michigan in Rogers Park, near apartments, campus buildings and public lakefront paths that students use throughout the year. The Chicago Park District describes the beach park as a neighborhood site on the North Side, but in mid-March it is far from the busy summer shoreline seen during beach season. The city’s public beach swimming season does not begin until Memorial Day weekend, leaving much of the lakefront quieter overnight and in the early morning hours. Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus, which borders the lake and houses residence halls, classrooms and student gathering spaces, has long tied the school’s identity to the waterfront. That closeness is also why violent incidents near the lakefront reverberate so quickly on campus. For students and families, the case was not only a city homicide investigation but also a deeply personal loss tied to one of the university’s most familiar public spaces. By Thursday afternoon, coverage of Gorman’s death had spread across Chicago television stations, local newspapers and student media, amplifying the sense that the killing had struck at the edge of daily campus life.
As of Thursday night, police had not announced charges, identified a suspect or said whether surveillance footage had captured the attack or the shooter’s movements before and after the gunfire. In a case like this, detectives typically work through witness interviews, camera footage from nearby buildings and streets, shell casing analysis and other forensic evidence from the scene. What is publicly known so far is limited: the victim’s identity, her age, the time and place of the shooting, the fact that she was with friends, and the account that a masked gunman approached on foot and fired. What comes next will likely turn on whether investigators can connect physical evidence with video or eyewitness descriptions. Loyola’s initial public messages focused on grief, counseling support and coordination with police rather than on any operational change to campus access. City officials had not, by the first day of coverage, announced a separate public briefing or disclosed whether additional patrols would remain near the beach into the weekend. The next clear milestone in the case will be a police update, an arrest announcement or the release of more detailed findings about how detectives believe the shooting unfolded.
Beyond the official statements, the first public reactions carried the weight of sudden loss. Gorman’s father, Thomas Gorman, offered a brief message as news spread: “Tell everyone to go hug their kids.” Reed’s note to the campus community used similarly stark language, saying the university learned of Gorman’s death “with profound sadness.” The short statements reflected how little was yet known and how final the facts already were. At the scene Thursday morning, the pier and nearby lakefront carried the ordinary details of a Chicago shoreline in late winter, but they had been transformed by flashing police lights, blocked pathways and investigators moving through a place students usually know as part of the campus backdrop. Hours later, after the immediate police work eased, the case remained suspended between grief and uncertainty. Friends had been beside Gorman in what should have been an ordinary walk near the water. By the end of the day, the city had a named victim, a grieving campus and a suspect still unidentified.
The investigation remained open Thursday evening, with no arrest announced and no public motive established. Police and Loyola officials were expected to provide further updates as detectives reviewed evidence from the pier and interviews from those who were there early March 19.
Author note: Last updated March 19, 2026.