Transcript (en)

My name is Jessica Gorman and Mother's Day was just two weeks ago. For most mothers, it meant flowers, cards, and phone calls for children coming home. For me it was heartache and tears. Because on March 19th, my beautiful daughter, Sheridan Grace Gorman, was murdered in cold blood. She was walking on a pier in Chicago with her friends, just a few blocks from her campus. They were hoping to see the northern lights over the Chicago City nightline. Sherrod never got to see those lights. Instead, her light was stolen by a man who should have never been in this country. A man who should have never been set free in that community. At every step, the system had a chance to stop him. At every step, it failed. And my daughter paid for those failures with her life. No mother should ever have to wonder if her child called out for her in her final moments No mother should ever have to imagine her baby lying alone and bleeding on the cold pavement And no family should ever have to marry a child because public officials failed to put innocent American lives first. To the mothers of New York, to the mothers of Chicago, Rockland County, and our own beloved Westchester County, and all across this nation who have reached out, who have cried with us, and prayed for us, and stood with us, I just want to thank you from the bottom for every the peace of my broken heart. I see you, I hear you, and I need you to please hear me.