A progressive Chicago lawmaker issued an apology Tuesday after facing backlash for suggesting a slain college student was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”

Last Thursday, Sheridan Gorman, 18, of Westchester County, New York, was gunned down while taking a walk with friends around 1:30 a.m. along Chicago’s lakefront.

Alderwoman Maria Hadden sparked outrage on social media after she suggested in an interview with Fox 32 Chicago that the Loyola University Chicago student was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” and that she may have “startled” the individual who shot and killed her.

The local Democrat’s comments were slammed as insensitive and also prompted a response from Gorman’s family, who referenced her remarks.

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Hadden, a progressive ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, released a statement Tuesday saying her interview on Fox 32 had “gone viral on conservative media,” and that her comments were in response to a question comparing Gorman’s murder to a separate 2018 case.

“In an effort to make sense of a senseless situation, I said things that landed wrong with some people,” she said. “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.

“In the interview, I tried my best to share what limited information I had with our community as fast as possible while helping to address the fears people had about the shooting,” Hadden continued. “I sincerely apologize for any additional pain that my comments may have caused.”

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She added, “The fact that some media outlets are intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy is also unfortunate.”

Gorman’s family referenced Hadden’s remarks from the Fox 32 interview, saying the slain college student “deserved the future that was stolen from her.”

“What happened to Sheridan cannot be reduced to the idea of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is not an abstraction. This is the loss of a daughter. The loss of a sister. The loss of a future filled with milestones that will now never come. Our family is forever changed.”

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The family added: “We cannot accept a world where moments like this become something people grow used to. We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to violence. When we begin to accept these tragedies as inevitable, we all become vulnerable to them. Apathy is not harmless—it allows these moments to repeat.”

Jose Medina-Medina was arrested and charged with Gorman’s murder.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Medina is an illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration before being apprehended and released into the country.

DHS said the 25-year-old Venezuelan national was previously arrested for shoplifting in Chicago.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

John Fetterman used to be known, sadly, as the guy who had the stroke.

And maybe the man who always wore the hoodie.

That has dramatically changed.

Now the Pennsylvania senator has alienated much of his own Democratic Party with an independent streak that often finds him siding with the Trump administration.

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Now he’s become Joe Manchin, who drove the Biden people crazy by resisting many of their liberal initiatives.

But I’d go further than that. I think he’s become more like the late John McCain — without the POW part, of course — as a maverick who seems to delight in breaking with party orthodoxy. The Republican McCain, you’ll recall, was a champion of campaign finance reform with an actual Democrat in Russ Feingold.

Is Fetterman paying a price? Oh, yeah.

Fetterman’s popularity has taken a beating. In 2023, he was at plus 68 points. Now he’s at negative 40 points. That is a 108-point swing, absolutely stunning.

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Now some Democrats are openly talking about a primary challenge against Fetterman in 2028, assuming he runs again.

In an appearance on Fox News, Fetterman explained his latest transgression: voting to confirm President Trump’s pick, Markwayne Mullin, as Homeland Security secretary, and proved to be the deciding vote in getting his nomination out of committee. Mullin was just confirmed.

“I believe in a very secure border,” Fetterman told Lara Trump. “We also agreed that we should deport all of the criminals. My friend Markwayne and I, we agree on that…

“I know I’m going to take a lot of Democratic blowback, which is strange to me, because there wasn’t really a lot of Democratic outrage when 300,000 people were encountered at our border during the prior administration. I was…We might be in the same Democratic Party, but clearly they didn’t have a problem with that open-border situation.”

He added: “That may isolate me with some people in my party. But that’s not country over party.”

Country over party? Does the concept even exist anymore in this hyperpolarized age? That sentiment used to be admired. Now, not so much.

Let’s face it, Democrats would have voted against any DHS nominee this side of Bernie Sanders simply because that person was picked by Trump.

In the same vein, Fetterman has largely supported the president’s war against Iran, the world’s leading terror state since 1979, again breaking with Chuck Schumer and the party line, which is that the attack can only be criticized. 

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On X, Fetterman alluded to the fact that he had urged President Trump to fire Kristi Noem.

He’s also said that his party is motivated by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

James Carville, who admits to suffering from TDS and has attacked Trump in obscenity-filled tirades, has also been ripping Fetterman.

“Can I say a public prayer?” Carville said on a podcast. “John Fetterman, whatever you do, keep your position. Don’t change. We don’t want you. Stay right where you are. Because you’ve been wrong about every (expletive) thing that you’ve ever said, and we don’t want you to break your streak.”

Fetterman responded to Carville in his Fox News interview: “Jim has been struggling for relevance for the last 30 years now. I’m proud to be on the right side of Epic Fury. I’m proud to be on the right side about staying in with Israel… 

“He acknowledged that [he’s] blinded by TDS. I’m a guy that actually represents Pennsylvania. I’m not an angry weird guy online. You know, to represent a state like Pennsylvania that keeps you honest, and I’m the only one this cycle that flipped a seat as well.”

Fetterman is drawing plenty of critical press. The Guardian reports that his vote for Mullin “prompted US House member Brendan Boyle, another Pennsylvania Democrat, to say that the vote showed why Fetterman was Donald Trump’s ‘favorite Democrat.’”

“He needs to go,” Boyle said.

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Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said: “If you needed any more proof that Fetterman has completely abandoned his constituents, here it is. Pennsylvanians deserve a senator that actually fights for them.”

In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, Fetterman trounced former Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., in the primary before defeating Dr. Mehmet Oz, R-Pa., in the general, despite a horrible debate in which Fetterman could barely function.

Lamb now says: “Did people think this vigilante was voting to protect their rights? Come on.”

Moe Davis of North Carolina, who ran unsuccessfully for the House, is now apologizing for sharing his donor list with the Fetterman camp. “I sincerely regret whatever part I had in helping to elect [Fetterman] in 2022.”

On the other side, Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito, who has reported extensively from Pennsylvania, shared this statistic with radio host Hugh Hewitt: “The argument that Lamb is making, that Fetterman is not a true Democrat, Fetterman votes 93% of the time with Democrats, whereas Lamb voted 68% of the time with Democrats. That’s almost a 30-point difference.”

Zito added that “there is a lot of posturing, but the Democrats that I talk to, even they know that there’s sort of this online movement against Fetterman, it’s very difficult for me to find anyone outside of the far-left, and by the way, this all has to do with Israel, right?” 

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If you put partisan warfare aside for a moment — very difficult, I know — Fetterman is showing the courage of his convictions. The man has guts.

Maybe Fetterrman, who still wears the trademark hoodie, has strayed too far from his Democratic constituents, but that’s a risk he chooses to take.

I wonder if battling back from a stroke is a factor here. In a brutally candid memoir, Fetterman admits he struggled with depression, even suicidal thoughts, and was exiled by his wife from the family’s home because his presence was too tough on the kids. In hindsight, he wrote, “I should have quit.”

“Paranoid. Not eating. Not sleeping. Not speaking. Not functioning. Resigned. Ashamed. Despairing.”

John Fetterman was harder on himself than anyone. I wonder if that fueled his desire to say what he really thinks, whatever the political cost. No matter what happens with his Senate career, he’s been through much worse.

Nine students were injured on Tuesday after a driver struck them with a vehicle at a school in Ankeny, Iowa, according to officials.

The incident happened around 3:15 p.m. as students were being picked up from St. Luke’s Catholic School on NW Weigel Drive, city police and fire officials said at a news conference.

A vehicle in the pickup line jumped the curb and struck the students, officials said.

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Several parents in line provided aid to the children until emergency responders arrived at the scene. The nine victims were then rushed to local hospitals.

Some of the students who were struck suffered serious injuries, according to officials. Their ages and conditions were not made publicly available, but the school teaches students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The driver, who has not been identified, was not injured and remained at the scene after the incident.

Sgt. Trevor McGraw, a spokesperson for the Ankeny Police Department, told reporters that the incident did not appear to be an intentional act of violence.

Investigators are continuing to probe what may have caused the collision.

People were asked to avoid the area to allow emergency responders to access the scene.

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“Thank you to parents from the school pickup line who assisted the injured immediately while emergency services were on the way,” city officials said. “Thank you to teachers and staff for assisting injured students and students who witnessed the traumatic incident.”

The Des Moines Diocese told WHO 13: “Please know that we pray for the families involved and for the first responders who assisted.”