A nine-year-old girl was shot and killed by her neighbor in Chicago in August 2023, just moments after offering him an ice cream cone. Sarabi Medina was riding her scooter outside her family's apartment when Michael Goodman, 46, approached her with a gun.
Prosecutors stated that Sarabi's father, Michael Medina, attempted to intervene, but Goodman pursued the child into her apartment and fatally shot her in the head. During the altercation, Medina tackled Goodman, causing a second shot that struck the gunman in his left eye, resulting in blindness in that eye.
Nearly three years after the incident, Goodman pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He will not be eligible for parole. During the court proceedings, Goodman admitted to consuming an excessive dose of ketamine on the day of the shooting, which he had purchased online after his antidepressants proved ineffective.
Through his attorney, Goodman claimed to have no memory of the shooting, stating his memory became hazy and he experienced suicidal thoughts. He asserted that the dose he took was not unusual for him. However, Sarabi's father refuted Goodman's claims, insisting the gunman deliberately targeted his daughter. "He talks. I was there that day. We were screaming at that man. That man wouldn't look at us for nothing. He was focusing on killing my daughter," Michael Medina told WLS.
Judge Tyria Walton imposed the 40-year sentence, granting Goodman credit for the approximately three years he has already served. When a cousin of Sarabi's requested a harsher penalty, the judge noted that Goodman would be 83 by the time of his potential release, adding that "statistically, that does not happen."
Sarabi Medina was preparing to start fourth grade at Reinberg Elementary School at the time of her death. She was described by her father's friends as the center of his life.