Police questioning person of interest in fatal shooting of 18-year-old Loyola student

Chicago police are questioning a person of interest in the Thursday fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student.

Sheridan Gorman was on a walk with her friends in the 1000 block of West Pratt Boulevard around 1:30 a.m. when she was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Chicago police confirmed they are questioning a person of interest in the shooting of the student from Yorktown, New York, but no other details were released.

The shooting has shaken the Rogers Park university and left Gorman's parents and fellow students reeling.

"She was full of life, full of kindness, and full of a love that she gave freely to everyone around her," Gorman's parents wrote in a statement released through their attorneys. "She made people feel seen. She made people feel valued. Whether it was her friends, her family, or someone she had just met, Sheridan had a way of leaving people better than she found them."

Gorman's family pleaded for anyone with information to come forward and implored others to resist becoming "desensitized to violence."

"When we begin to accept these tragedies as inevitable, we all become vulnerable to them," they wrote. "Apathy is not harmless — it allows these moments to repeat."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Loyola University campus safety at 773-508-7233, or the Chicago Police Department at 911 or 312-744-8263.

Contributing: Sophie Sherry