From Fox News: A former Chicago Police Department chief of detectives says that a bill introduced in the Illinois state house just one day before Sheridan Gorman was killed has the potential to be detrimental to police in the state by banning the use of any biometric identification systems.
Police arrested Jose Medina-Medina, 25, on Friday after he allegedly killed Loyola University Chicago student Gorman, who was 18, early on Thursday morning. Medina-Medina is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who first entered the U.S. in 2023, when he was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol and released into the U.S. under the Biden administration.
Medina-Medina allegedly shot and killed Gorman on a pier on Thursday, March 19, at around 1:06 a.m., according to an arrest report.
Democrat Illinois State Rep. Kelly Cassidy introduced a bill that would ban law enforcement from using biometric identification systems, including fingerprint-matching tools, facial recognition programs, iris scanners, as well as any other software that deals with biometric information, according to the bill’s text. DNA isn’t included in the biometric identifiers in Cassidy’s bill.
The report points out that Medina-Medina was identified by police with the help of facial recognition software, as images from surveillance cameras in the area were run through a police database, and a match was identified.
Medina-Medina, an illegal alien from Venezuela, first entered the U.S. in May 2023, and was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration. The very next month, on June 19, 2023, Medina-Medina was released after being arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.
After illegally entering the U.S., the Venezuelan was reportedly living at Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park, which was being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants. That facility closed in 2024.
Although the facial recognition system helped identified Medina-Medina in the horrific murder of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, Democrat Illinois State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a lesbian, is arguing that the system is flawed and must go.
“Just as with all bills introduced in our body, HB5521 is a work in progress aimed at curtailing the abuses of biometric data we’ve most recently seen during Operation Midway Blitz. It is tragic that some people want to use individual tragedies to justify the use of flawed technologies that risk the private information of millions in our state,” Cassidy claimed in a statement to Fox News.
Gorman’s family has been blasting Illinois Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, for the sanctuary policies that allowed Medina-Medina to remain in the country.
Sheridan Gorman was failed by open-border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he carried out this heinous murder.
On May 9, 2023, Medina-Medina was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol and released into the country under the Biden… pic.twitter.com/s6v57GPwyu
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 23, 2026
Retired police chief Thomas Weitzel is demanding that Cassidy withdraw her bill to eliminate the facial recognition tools, arguing that the system is desperately needed to help police identify criminals.
Weitzel, “@RepKellyCassidy, I am asking you to withdraw your proposed legislation, HB5521, immediately. This is an awful piece of legislation—Sheridan Gorman was murdered in your district, don’t gut police.” @CWBChicago @Awake_IL @John_Kass @Giersh @AVPMikeFerguson @MorningAnswer pic.twitter.com/SMkdwcFcQk
— Chief Thomas Weitzel-Retired (@ChiefWeitzel) March 26, 2026
Weitzel, “This is a good photo, right? Under Rep. Kelly Cassidy‘s proposed legislation, HB5521, no police agency in Illinois would be able to run that photo through facial recognition – absurd.”@CWBChicago @Awake_IL @foxnewsnight https://t.co/1lopCKYSs2
— Chief Thomas Weitzel-Retired (@ChiefWeitzel) March 28, 2026
Meanwhile, Weitzel is pointing out that the mainstream liberal media is completely burying the story.
Weitzel, “Be honest: does anyone think this is fair? Three networks. Minutes of coverage. If the facts don’t serve their agenda, they smother the story. @CWBChicago @Awake_IL @FoxNews @foxnewsnight @John_Kass @JamesTala39565 @Wirepoints @ramblin_ray @ChicagoContrar1 @Giersh pic.twitter.com/QEDtXfXmCM
— Chief Thomas Weitzel-Retired (@ChiefWeitzel) March 28, 2026
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