Police say an 18-year-old woman was shot on a pier near Tobey Prinz Beach as she walked with friends.
CHICAGO, Ill. — An 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student was shot and killed early Thursday while walking with friends near Tobey Prinz Beach in Rogers Park, police and university officials said, leaving detectives searching for a masked gunman and a shaken campus mourning one of its students.
Sheridan Gorman was identified by Loyola as the student killed in the shooting, which happened about 1:30 a.m. near the pier in the 1000 block of West Pratt Boulevard, just north of the school’s Lake Shore Campus. Chicago police said the gunman approached the group on foot and opened fire in their direction. The case quickly became both a homicide investigation and a major shock for the university, which said there was no known ongoing threat to campus as of Thursday morning.
Authorities said Gorman was walking with several friends when the suspect came toward them near the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach, also known as Pratt Avenue Beach. Police said the attacker pulled out a gun and fired toward the group. Gorman was struck in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was reported injured. Police have not announced an arrest, and detectives had not publicly described a motive by Thursday. Early accounts from the university and local media said the suspect wore a face covering, a detail that added to the uncertainty around who carried out the shooting and whether Gorman was the intended target. ABC7 reported that police said she was not believed to be the intended target, pointing to a burst of violence that appeared sudden and highly specific but still poorly explained in the first hours after the attack.
University officials moved quickly to notify students and staff. Loyola President Mark C. Reed said in a message to the campus community that the university learned one of its students had been killed in an incident north of campus. He called it a tragic loss and said the school was in close contact with law enforcement as investigators worked to understand the full circumstances. The university said counseling and support services were made available immediately. A prayer vigil and community gathering were scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Madonna della Strada Chapel. Loyola’s student newspaper later reported that support staff were also made available in Mertz Hall, where students were encouraged to gather and seek help if needed. Those steps underscored how deeply the shooting hit a campus where the beach and lakefront paths are part of daily student life.
In Rogers Park, the killing stunned neighbors who described the beach area as quiet, especially compared with busier parts of the city. One nearby resident told ABC7 that she first heard what sounded like a single pop and later heard screams. Another resident, Sandra Hauptmann, described the area as a place where neighbors walk dogs and students regularly gather. Her remarks reflected a broader sense of disbelief that such a fatal shooting happened on a pier used for recreation and late-night walks. The location matters in another way as well: the beach sits close to Loyola’s campus boundary, meaning the crime unfolded in a zone strongly associated with student routines, not in a distant part of the city. That closeness likely amplified the fear and grief felt across the university Thursday morning.
By late Thursday, investigators had shared only a limited picture of what happened. Chicago police said Area 3 detectives were handling the case. Officials had not released a detailed suspect description beyond saying the shooter was male and masked. They also had not said whether surveillance video exists from nearby buildings or streets, though a neighbor quoted by ABC7 questioned the availability of cameras in the immediate area. That lack of detail left several major questions unanswered: why the group was targeted, whether the shooter knew anyone there, whether the attack was random or mistaken, and how the gunman left the scene. At the same time, university officials said the information available to them did not point to an active threat on campus, an important distinction as students awoke to emergency alerts and word of Gorman’s death spread.
The timing of the shooting added to the emotional weight of the case. It happened overnight, before dawn, in a place that many students and residents likely see as familiar and open rather than isolated and dangerous. News photographs later showed police investigating on the pier after sunrise, with the lakefront visible behind the crime scene. That visual contrast between a normally calm shoreline and the aftermath of a killing sharpened the sense of loss around the case. Friends, classmates and neighbors were left to process not only the death of a young student, but the fact that it happened in a space woven into the life of the neighborhood and the university. Reed’s message asked the campus community to keep Gorman’s family and loved ones in their prayers, and public comments from neighbors echoed the same grief.
As of Thursday afternoon, Gorman’s killing remained under investigation, with no arrest announced and no fuller account of the suspect released. The next visible milestone was the campus vigil set for 7 p.m. Thursday, while police continued gathering evidence and trying to determine why the shooter opened fire on the group.
Author note: Last updated March 19, 2026.