Hadiya pendleton park

Hadiya Pendleton, who performed at President Obama's inauguration with her high school's band and drill team Jan. Police said an unidentified gunman jumped a fence, ran toward the group and opened fire, then jumped into a car and left the scene. Pendleton was hit in the back. A male victim, 16, is in serious condition. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference Wednesday that the gunman might have believed she and her friends were members of a rival gang.

Pendleton had no arrest record and there's no indication she was in a gang, police said. Obama spokesman Jay Carney called the death a "terrible tragedy.

Hadiya pendleton killer

Chicago has had 42 homicides so far this year, the most at this point since , police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said. The city had murders in , up from the previous year. Nathaniel Pendleton, the victim's father, asked at the news conference why it's dangerous for the city's youth to hang out at parks in the afternoon.

Such tragedies, he said, aren't "only happening in bad neighborhoods. It's happening in good neighborhoods. It's happening in the suburbs. Michael Pfleger, pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Catholic Church, said the nation "should be just as outraged" by Pendleton's death as it was by the Dec. Hadiya, a sophomore who was planning to attend college, was "a great, great, wonderful young lady — a walking angel," said her adult cousin, Shatira Wilks.

She played sports and was a majorette, cheerleader and Honor Roll student, she said.