Obama Girl Hadiya Pendleton Shot to Death a Week after Inaugural Performance
President Barack Obama mourns with the family of Hadiya Pendleton for the death of the the 15-year-old girl who sang last week at Obama's inauguration.
Pendleton was shot in the back while with friends at the Vivian Gordon Harsh Park on Tuesday, reports The Tribune. A gunman open fired at the group, killing two more men and wounding at least eight people.
During the shooting, Pendleton still managed to run for about a block before collapsing, and died at the hospital, reports NBC News.
"Never in a million years did I think I would get a call that my own baby had been gunned down," Pendleton's mother Cleo Cowley said to NBC News.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama have given their condolences to the family and giving their prayers to the late teenager.
"It's a terrible tragedy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said to USA Today. "We see it far too often."
"Something does need to change," said Cowley to NBC News. "Where are the guns coming from? I don't own a gun. My daughter was not violent. I never would have thought she would die like this."
Chicago has had a history of gang violence, and reports state that this shooting may have been caused by a gang mistaking the group of people at the park to be another gang.
So far, the city has incurred 40 murders, with the rate pushed up to 16% in 2012, reports News.com.