The Islamic Republic of Iran’s vast missile system is the brainchild of the U.S.-designated state-sponsor of terrorism, the communist North Korea regime, which works hand in glove with Iran, according to one of the world’s leading experts on the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance.

"The missile launched at Diego Garcia was a Musudan. The Iranians bought 19 of these from the North Koreans and took delivery in 2005. They have had this capability since 2005 — and this is no ‘secret weapon,'" Bruce Bechtol, who co-authored with Anthony Celso the groundbreaking book "Rogue Allies: The Strategic Partnership Between Iran and North Korea," told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reported last week that Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia—roughly 2,500 miles from Iran.

TRUMP PROVEN RIGHT ON IRAN'S LONG-RANGE MISSILE CAPABILITY AS REGIME TARGETS US-UK BASE, EXPERTS SAY

Bechtol said, "The most important threat from Iran as the war with the United States and Israel has evolved has been the ballistic missiles, launched not only at U.S. facilities and Israeli cities, but also at neighboring Islamic countries. Thus, it is important to consider this capability and where Iran got it."

He said, "The short-range ballistic missiles that Iran has launched at key U.S. facilities and at neighboring Arab states include a key system – the 'QIAM.' The QIAM was developed and improved with North Korean assistance… North Korea has proliferated a lot to Iran that we are seeing right now in the war."

The joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran’s regime, the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department, has entered its fifth week.

Bechtol, who is a professor of political science in the Department of Security Studies at Angelo State University in Texas, noted that, according to the Wisconsin Project, North Korea had constructed a large missile test facility at Emamshahr, a city in the Fars Province in Iran, and a tracking facility at Tabas in South Khorasan province.

He said North Korea aided Iran with crucial technology "for targets farther away from Iran."

"The North Koreans proliferated around 150 No Dong systems to Iran in the late 1990s. The Iranians were apparently very happy with the missiles the North Koreans provided them, and, following the earlier precedent of the Scud C factory, contracted with Pyongyang to build a No Dong facility in Iran."

AFTER THE STRIKES, HOW WOULD THE US SECURE IRAN’S ENRICHED URANIUM?

Bechtol continued, "The Iranians called this ‘new’ missile the Shahab-3. The Shahab-3 is almost an exact copy of the No Dong. Once the Shahab-3 was up and running, the North Koreans moved forward with the Iranians in improving its range and lethality."

He said, "With assistance from the North Koreans, the Iranians were then able to produce (at the No Dong facility) the Emad and the Ghadr. The Emad has a range of 1,750 kilometers (approx 1,087 miles) and the Ghadr has a range of 1,950 kilometers (approximately 1,212 miles.) The Iranians have used these two systems to target not only Israel, but their Arab neighbors (including U.S. bases located in these countries) throughout the ongoing first stages of this conflict."

Bechtol said the North Koreans spawned an Iranian missile warhead that weighs a ton and a half to two tons on the powerful Khorramshahr-4. "There is another system capable of hitting Israel that has been even more lethal than any of the systems described thus far. This system is called the ‘Khorramshahr,’ and the fourth version of this system, appropriately called the ‘Khorramshahr-4,’ has been proven to carry a warhead larger than any other in Iran’s missile inventory, armed with what appears to be cluster munitions," he said.

He described the strategic partnership, noting: "North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer. North Korea proliferates weapons systems, technology, parts and components, technicians, engineers and specialists and military capabilities (such as the building of underground facilities) to Iran. Iran pays North Korea with cash and oil. Simple as that."

Bechtol said the only way to stop this is through sanctions enforcement against North Korea. "The sanctions that are needed are already on the books. But the USA and our key allies need to robustly enforce them. We need to go after banks, front companies and cyber entities in order to squeeze the money and contain or destroy the supply chain."

He said, "More emphasis needs to be placed, and more action needs to be taken using the Proliferation Security Initiative — an underused aspect of preventing North Korea's arms from flowing to rogue nations and terrorist groups.  If you cut off the supply chain, you cut off the proliferation."

A political newcomer and former reality star running in Virginia’s Democratic senatorial primary is causing an uproar in his party after breaking with them on gerrymandering and a slew of new gun control efforts.

Mark Moran, a former contestant on the HBOMax series "FBoy Island" and previously a Wall Street banker, is challenging longtime Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark R. Warner, D-Va., whom he calls an "oligarch" who is no longer serving his constituents.

Warner is the former richest and now fourth-richest senator, with a net worth upwards of $200 million, and is running for his fourth term despite a snippet unearthed by Moran showing him pledging to serve only two.

"Since the establishment is already mad at me, here’s another truth: Virginia Democrats are completely wrong on the Second Amendment," Moran said on X after invoking the ire of Virginia’s top Senate Democrat for opposing her politically-charged redistricting effort.

YOUR 2A RIGHTS ARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK AS VIRGINIA DEMS PLOT INSANE GUN BANS

"After facing a personal safety issue, I got a gun. It made me realize how extreme our party’s stance has become," Moran said. "Dan Helmer’s (loser) July 1st ban literally classifies regular handguns as ‘assault firearms’ so the government can take them away."

Helmer, a Democratic state delegate from Fairfax, did not respond to a request for comment. He already launched a bid to run in one of the newly-drawn, allegedly gerrymandered congressional districts that have yet to be approved by the voters on April 21.

Moran said the Founding Fathers crafted the Second Amendment to protect the U.S. from tyranny.

"[That is] whether that tyranny comes from Donald Trump or a state legislature trying to disarm you. Our right to protect ourselves shall not be infringed," Moran said.

The Falls Church native’s comments irritated a handful of other Democratic figures within a few hours of his post, including Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko — the founder of "Ready For Hillary" when the former first lady was eyeing the White House in the mid-2010s.

GOP-LED COUNTIES PUSH BACK AGAINST DEMOCRAT'S REDISTRICTING CHARGE, TESTING VIRGINIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS

"Go be a p---- in someone else’s party. We’re not doing that anymore," Parkhomenko said on X in response to Moran.

Virginia Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who has posted at-times raunchy memes celebrating Democrats’ flip of the governorship and push to draw out all but one Republican congressman in Virginia, lambasted Moran’s tweet on that matter, spurring his gun rights commentary.

"Anyone against our redistricting efforts to stand up to Donald Trump doesn’t share our values as Democrats," Lucas said in a statement on X. "If you want to oppose redistricting, you picked the wrong primary to run in. [By the way] I endorse Mark Warner."

Moran had called his fellow Democrats’ cartographical creativity "extremely anti-democratic and that it is a reactionary policy to Donald Trump that was created by DC consultants."

He noted that Virginia voters already approved a resolution in 2019 to remove the legislature from redistricting considerations and slammed the new maps for "slic[ing] up Arlington and tak[ing] away the voices of everyone outside Northern Virginia."

"In every local Democratic committee I’ve been in, when this issue comes up, nobody can defend it, it’s just ‘well this is what the party says is best’ -- NO. The Democratic Party loses because of reactionary maneuvers and because it doesn’t have a big bold vision for the future," he said.

VIRGINIA DEM ADMITS REDISTRICTING PUSH AIMS TO 'STOP TRUMP', NOT ABOUT 'FAIRNESS'

"I can’t hold my tongue any longer despite what this will do to me with the Dems in Virginia."

Moran also has spoken out against the proliferation of data centers in Virginia, sucking up power from the grid in both West Virginia and Virginia and allegedly increasing costs on residential consumers.

He posited a plan to tax the data centers to create a free-college fund.

While Moran came across moderate on those issues, a report from the New York Post showed his campaign platform includes abolishing ICE and passing Medicare-for-All, which the paper said places him to Warner’s left on those key issues.

"This year is the 250th anniversary of our country; now is the time for a peaceful revolution against the billionaires, the tech oligarchs, the data centers and all the other big money interests," he said in a statement obtained by the Post.

Fox News Digital reached out to Warner’s campaign, Moran's campaign and Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office for comment.

A Texas woman is dead after being shot in an alleged carjacking while visiting her cancer-stricken best friend. 

Marietta Allison traveled from Austin to Houston to accompany friend Cassie Daniel to her second treatment for stage 4 ovarian cancer on Saturday, March 7. 

Following a day at the hospital in which Allison took care of Daniel as she received a round of chemotherapy, the pair of friends left around 10:30 p.m. to spend the night at a nearby friend’s house. 

When there was no parking at the building, Allison dropped Daniel and her father off and circled the block to find somewhere to leave the car. 

REPEAT OFFENDER WITH 20-PLUS PRIOR CHARGES ALLEGEDLY KILLS 23-YEAR-OLD IN HIT-AND-RUN, THEN WALKS AWAY

"We were putting our things away, and I heard a scream and then a gunshot," Daniel told Fox News Digital. "I felt like something large dropped to the floor, and I was like, ‘Was that a gunshot?’" 

When Daniel realized Allison had not returned from parking the car, she began to worry. 

"I stepped out into the living room and told my friends, ‘Was that a gunshot?’" Daniel said. "She was like, ‘Have you heard from Marietta?’ and I said no. And my friend said, ‘Well, I just tried to call her, and she didn't answer.’" 

Feeling as though something was wrong, Daniel went to the last known location of Allison’s phone, where she found Allison lying on the sidewalk surrounded by police officers. 

"She was lying on the ground, and the paramedics were around her and I could see her purse down on the sidewalk," Daniel said, adding Allison’s wallet was left at the scene.

REPEAT OFFENDER WITH LONG RAP SHEET ALLEGEDLY GUNS DOWN MAN WHILE FREE ON PROBATION, BONDS DESPITE VIOLATIONS

Authorities quickly learned that the vehicle Allison was driving was missing, launching a frantic search for an apparent carjacker as her loved ones watched helplessly as she was transported to a hospital, where she later died from her injuries.  

"She was almost instantly killed, if not just a few seconds later," Daniel told Fox News Digital. "She was shot kind of through the neck and through the head."

Following a brief search, officers found 18-year-old Darius DeWayne Hall driving the victim’s stolen vehicle, resulting in a high-speed chase, according to KHOU 11. 

COLORADO REPEAT OFFENDER FREED FROM JAIL LESS THAN TWO WEEKS BEFORE ALLEGEDLY KILLING MOTHER OF THREE: REPORT

Hall subsequently crashed the vehicle along the Southwest Freeway and attempted to flee on foot, sparking an hours-long standoff in a nearby residential area, according to the outlet.

"I opened my door around 4:15 a.m., and there was an officer on his knees with a shield and one behind him with a gun pointing right down the stairs to that unit where they found him," neighbor Ken Knisely told KHOU 11.

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Hall was later taken into custody at around 7 a.m. and charged with capital murder stemming from Allison’s death.

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In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Daniel is choosing to remember Allison as a loving individual who spent her last moments taking care of her friend in need. 

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"She was literally sitting in the hospital bed, spoon-feeding me a fruit bowl," Daniel told Fox News Digital as she recalled her final day with Allison. "And I was like, ‘Love like this exists.’"

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"So I could see the tender care, compassion, empathy and just the love that was there. And at the same time, I was like, this is a precious moment. I had no idea that it would be one of my last moments with her." 

The Houston Police Department did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is staying neutral in the combustible GOP Senate nomination showdown in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

"I like John. I like Ken. They're both friends of mine. I have supported both of them in the past. I've worked closely with both of them. I've endorsed both of them. I've campaigned with both of them, and so I'm staying out," the conservative firebrand three-term senator said in a Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday.

The winner of the May 26 Republican runoff election will face off with Democratic nominee state Rep. James Talarico in this autumn's general election in a race that's among a handful which may decide if the GOP keeps its Senate majority in the midterms. The GOP currently controls the chamber, 53–47.

BRUISING GOP SENATE PRIMARY SHOWDOWN HEADS INTO OVERTIME

Cornyn edged Paxton by a point in the March 3 primary, as they were the top two contenders among a crowded field of Republican candidates. But since neither of the heated rivals cracked the 50% threshold to win the nomination, the race headed into overtime.

While some of Cruz's top outsider political advisors are supporting Paxton, the senator is declining to take sides.

"I trust the voters of Texas to make this decision," the senator said.

‘OPEN BORDERS, TRUMP-HATING RADICAL’—REPUBLICANS QUICKLY POUNCE ON TALARICO

Talarico, who is considered a Democratic Party rising star, topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in their party's primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs have spent big bucks to run ads attacking Paxton, arguing that Democrats will flip the seat in the general election if Paxton's the GOP's nominee.

Cornyn, his allies, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.

Paxton, a longtime supporter and ally of President Donald Trump and a MAGA firebrand who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, has pushed back by repeatedly questioning Cornyn's conservative credentials and past support for Trump.

The president, whose sway in Republican nomination battles remains immense, stayed neutral during the primary campaign.

Hours after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff, Trump took to social media to announce, "I will be making my Endorsement soon."

Trump added that he would "be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"

All signs at the time pointed to Trump backing Cornyn.

But more than three weeks since his social media post, Trump still remains neutral. And that has the MAGA faithful, many of whom are backing Paxton, hopeful that the president will stay out of the race, which would be a major victory for the Texas attorney general.

Paxton traveled to the president's Mar-a-Lago residence last weekend for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner, where he briefly met with President Trump, two sources with knowledge of the encounter confirmed to Fox News Digital. One of the sources called it a "check in" between Trump and Paxton. The news was first reported by Politico.

There's been a dearth of public opinion polling in the runoff, but the two surveys that have been released suggest Paxton holds a single-digit lead.

The race between Cornyn and Paxton is viewed by many Republicans as a battle between MAGA world and the grassroots versus the party establishment for the soul of the GOP.

Graphic Warning — The story contains a graphic image. 

After undergoing life-altering surgeries she now regrets, Soren Aldaco is taking her fight to the Texas Supreme Court. The 23-year-old detransitioner claims online grooming led her to pursue medical intervention as a minor; now, justices must decide if her malpractice suit against her former doctors can proceed past the state's legal deadline.

Aldaco spoke to Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview about her journey, which began when she started using social media at age 11 and joined "these little art communities online where we would create characters and give them different names and appearances." 

"I discovered the darkest corners of the internet. In these chatrooms, I was sexually groomed by adult strangers who used my love for art against me," Aldaco wrote in a Fox News op-ed. "I made friends with other little girls on art forums around the same time, many of whom had similar experiences. One such girl began identifying as transgender. She told me she felt like "a boy trapped in a girl’s body."

This is when she learned about people identifying as transgender.

I WAS A CHILD AND BELIEVED GENDER TRANSITION WOULD HEAL MY PAIN; IT BECAME A NEW TRAUMA

'WE CANNOT ENDORSE:' WHY THE NATION’S PLASTIC SURGEONS ARE PULLING BACK ON YOUTH GENDER SURGERY

"I think transgender identity is very similar to cosplay in a lot of ways. You take on a new name, you take on a new appearance, almost like you're creating one of those characters online," Aldaco told Fox News Digital. 

But it soon became more than just pretending online, saying she started to "feel like a boy" due to a combination of newfound male attention and her tendency to "engage in this fantasy of cosplaying."

"I was role-playing in these art forums, just like boyfriend, girlfriend role plays, cutesy, like innocent kid things. I mean, the most that we got into that was mature was kissing, right? But online, in those adult chat rooms, obviously I wasn't aware that there was more mature content that adults would end up leading me into," she said. "I ended up having this psychiatric episode and my family took me to a hospital where the psychiatrist that was responsible for my care pressured me to essentially come out to him as trans."

Aldaco claimed she didn't have intentions of doing so. 

"This was something I never intended to do. I saw it as the role-play identity, and he insisted that it was safe to tell him, even though it was something I wasn't going to deal with 'til I was an adult," she said. 

She shared how, over the next year and a half, she was involved in a support group and met a nurse practitioner that prescribed her testosterone. 

WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

PLASTIC SURGEON APOLOGIZES FOR FAILING TO 'SPEAK UP’ AGAINST YOUTH TRANS SURGERIES AT MAJOR NYC HOSPITAL

Aldaco alleges that her transition was facilitated by medical professionals who ignored her underlying trauma and coached her to navigate insurance hurdles. According to Aldaco, her therapist showed no interest in exploring her history of being groomed, despite Aldaco’s explicit requests to discuss it. Instead, she claims the therapist fast-tracked her medical transition by drafting a surgical recommendation letter that contained a significant falsehood: It stated Aldaco had been living as a male for at least 12 months — a standard clinical milestone Aldaco says she had not actually reached.

The alleged misconduct extended to the surgical center, where Aldaco claims the staff prioritized "coaching" over care. She describes being told exactly what to say to secure insurance approval, including instructions to claim she wanted a phalloplasty (a complex genital reconstruction that uses tissue to create a penis) even though she did not. Aldaco alleges this was a tactical move by the center to maximize insurance payouts. When her provider initially denied coverage as "out-of-network," she says the center pressured her into a self-pay agreement, promising they had the expertise to force the insurance company to reimburse her at in-network rates.

MAJOR MEDICAL ORGANIZATION URGES DELAYING YOUTH GENDER SURGERIES

Aldaco said she experienced complications after her double mastectomy, and she was "ghosted" by her doctors afterward.

Aldaco believed that both the therapist and the nurse practitioner "projected" their experiences onto her and said they met through activist groups. Aldaco said the nurse practictioner had an adult child that identified as trans and the therapist had a trans ex-spouse, and said the therapist was treating her for relationship problems.

Aldaco said the nurse practitioner, who prescribed her hormones, did not confirm to do so with her biological mother.

"My stepmom was the one who took me to those appointments. She didn't have legal authority over me. And, the nurse practitioners didn't even ask her if she did."

"We filed our suit initially in 2023, and now it has made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is against the nurse practitioner who initially prescribed me hormones, the therapist who wrote the authorization letter for my double mastectomy, and then the team that performed my double mastectomies and ghosted me afterward when I experienced complications." 

The case is marked as pending, according to Tarrant County records.

In 2024, Soren Aldaco’s legal efforts faced a series of procedural dismissals in Texas courts. In April 2024, a judge dismissed some of her claims against medical providers involved in her hormone treatment. By November 2024, an appellate court also dismissed her case against her former therapist, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired.

State law mandates medical liability lawsuits be filed "within two years from the occurrence of the breach or tort or from the date the medical or health care treatment that is the subject of the claim."

MASSACHUSETTS HEALTH CARE GIANT ENDS YOUTH GENDER CARE TO PROTECT 'HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS' IN FUNDING

However, her case saw a major development in December when the Texas Supreme Court agreed to review these rulings, specifically to determine when the legal "clock" should begin for patients seeking to sue over sex-change procedures.

Her case being heard by the Texas Supreme Court only involves her former therapist and the associated counseling group who wrote a letter recommending surgery for Aldaco in Feb. 2021. 

Aldaco said her goal goes beyond speaking out about transitioning.

"My goal with sharing my story is not only to put a stop to these interventions... but also just to bring awareness to the impacts of our digital habits on our kids," she said. 

The attorney representing the therapist and the counseling center said they cannot comment on ongoing litigation, but did say, "The appeal is about proper understanding of the limitations provision of the Texas health care liability statute that Aldaco is proceeding under. It is not about the substance of Aldaco's claim."

Aldaco, who is a newlywed, said she has been experiencing health issues, including with her reproductive system.

Attorneys for the other health care providers involved in Aldaco's case listed in the lawsuit did not respond to Fox News' Digital request for comment. 

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.

ILLINOIS GOV. PRIZTKER ADMITS 'REAL FAILURES' AS SLAIN CHICAGO STUDENT'S HOMETOWN PAYS TRIBUTE IN LIGHTS

If the bill was enacted, law enforcement agencies in the state wouldn't be able to use the Secretary of State's facial-recognition database.

Illinois House Bill 5521, known as the Illinois Biometric Surveillance Act, was introduced on Feb. 6.

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Notably, Medina-Medina was identified with the help of facial recognition. Images of the suspect were sent to a police database, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified the suspect as Medina. He was arrested at his apartment in Rogers Park, according to the arrest report.

Retired Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy told Fox News Digital that without the help of facial recognition, his identification and arrest would have "absolutely" been delayed.

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"This case was cracked in large part due to looking at the videos from the cameras in the area surrounding the murder and to run them through different systems until they found a match," Roy said.

Roy said that if passed, the bill's effects would be "crippling" for detectives.

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"It's gonna be just short of crippling detective work," Roy said. "You have to be able to identify people. When you build a case, it's not just based on an identification, it's just not based on a picture, it's based on the combination of a lot of things. It's based on identification. It's based on witness accounts. It's based on physical evidence. It's like building a wall. And if you take away the bricks that are at the foundation of that wall, the wall is going to crumble."

Gorman, just 18 when she was killed, was described by loved ones as someone who radiated an "unmistakable warmth" and poured her energy into things she cared about, like her family, friends and community.

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While Gorman is from New York, close ones say she brought that same type of energy to Loyola University Chicago, where she "had begun building the next chapter of her life," according to her obituary.

Fox News Digital obtained an arrest report that shows Medina-Medina was seen unmasked while waiting for an elevator in his apartment building's lobby. An engineer for the building told detectives that he knew the suspect, noting he had a "very distinct limp and gait."

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That gait, in addition to a positive identification from facial recognition, resulted in Medina-Medina's arrest.

Medina-Medina told officials in 2023 that he was living at Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park in 2023, which was being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants. The shelter closed in 2024, according to South Side Weekly.

In an earlier statement to Fox News Digital, the Gorman family said they are disappointed with policies that allowed Medina-Medina to remain in the country.

"When systems fail—whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act—the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent," the family wrote.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Cassidy said that people shouldn't look at "anecdotes."

"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 said. 

"Rather than look at anecdotes, we should know that facial recognition technology is demonstrably inaccurate. It is curious that in discussing this issue, we hear about particularly heinous and troubling crimes, but nothing about people being misidentified by facial recognition technology and held for hours (if not days) based on system errors. House Bill 5521 does not limit state and local police from investigating crimes. It simply protects the privacy of millions of Illinois residents simply because they have an Illinois driver’s license."

The mother of a slain Washington, D.C. congressional intern urged the family of Sheridan Gorman to "fight back" after she wrote a touching tribute on the college student's obituary.

Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, 18, was shot and killed on March 19 while she was at a pier near campus in the city's Rogers Park area. 25-year-old Jose Medina-Medina, the suspect in Gorman's murder, entered the country illegally on May 9, 2023, and was apprehended then released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, whose son Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, was caught in the crossfire of a gang-related shooting in Washington, D.C., June 30, 2025, wrote a touching tribute to Gorman and her family after she was killed.

"My sincerest condolences to the family. I and my family understand what you are going through as I went through the same thing July 1, 2025 with our innocent 21 yr old son. I pray for all of you," Tarpinian-Jachym wrote. "The pain is the worse pain any family can go through and know your family is in my prayers along with all the other families who have gone through this."

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In an interview with Fox News Digital, Tarpinian-Jachym said she was "disgusted" upon learning about Gorman's death.

"I cried. I was angered. I was disgusted. This is an ongoing issue in Chicago and a lot of these cities that should have never happened," she said. "I was just really angered at that and, um, angered that there are no people in elected positions in these cities, in states. They just don't care. They don't about us, the victims, and the lifelong trauma this has on a family."

Tarpinian-Jachym's son, Eric, was killed in a drive-by shooting when several individuals exited a vehicle and began firing shots at a group of people, which included the congressional intern. He wasn't the intended target, police said.

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"They need to fight. And I think parents of victims. We need to band together, all together," Tarpinian-Jachym said. "My heart goes out to the Gormans. I understand what they're going through." 

Tarpinian-Jachym also said she thinks leadership in Chicago and Illinois need to be held responsible.

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"The people in charge in Chicago should be held responsible for this. You know, I think the governor, the mayor, it's disgusting what they've been saying for the last year. It really, it's heart-wrenching to me that all these people are getting murdered," she said.

Medina-Medina is expected in court Friday morning.

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Gorman, who attended Yorktown High School in Yorktown Heights, New York, was described in an obituary as someone who "had a way of making people feel seen, valued, and believed in." While in high school, Gorman participated in field hockey, lacrosse and bowling "among many other activities."

"People often say someone 'lit up a room' or had ‘inner and outer beauty,’ but in Sheridan’s case, those phrases fall way too short. She radiated something even greater—a rare and unmistakable warmth, a spirit that was vibrant, compassionate, and full of life. She was funny, kind, and deeply loving, with a heart that made space for everyone," her obituary states. "She loved fiercely—her family, her friends, her community, and her faith. She brought people together, lifted them up, and made the ordinary moments feel extraordinary simply by being in them."

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Medina-Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to DHS.

Following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Medina was released on June 19, 2023, DHS said.

He was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, three felony counts of aggravated assault with discharge of firearm and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, according to the Chicago Police Department.

At the time of his June 2023 arrest, Medina-Medina told officials he was living at Leone Beach Park fieldhouse in Rogers Park in 2023, which was being used as a city-sponsored shelter for migrants.