CHICAGO — The man accused of fatally shooting Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman is facing new charges after Cook County Jail staff found him with a shank, the Cook County sheriff’s office announced.

José Medina faces 18 felony counts in the March killing of 18-year-old Gorman, including charges for murder and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon. Late last month, Medina, 26, pleaded not guilty to all counts against him. Medina has been ordered held as he awaits trial. He’s been in custody since March 23.

Corrections staff learned Medina had a weapon at around 8 a.m. Thursday, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Correctional officers searched him and found a “sharpened piece of metal with a handle fashioned out of medical tape” in his pants pocket, authorities said. The shank measured 6 inches long.

On Friday, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office approved another felony count against Medina for the makeshift weapon, charging him with possession of contraband in a penal institution.

Prosecutors have alleged that Medina, a Venezuelan national, shot and killed Gorman while she took in the skyline with friends on a pier around Tobey Prinz Beach Park in Rogers Park in the early morning hours of March 19. Gorman’s death quickly became a lightning rod in the polarizing discourse over immigration policy, as national and local conservative politicians placed blame on the state’s sanctuary laws.

Gorman’s family has called for accountability and justice since the fatal shooting.

“There can be no gaps, no shortcuts, and no second chances that put others at risk,” the family previously stated.

Medina is next due to appear in court Monday morning.

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