Agony of parents whose daughter, 15, was gunned down a week after she performed at Obama's inauguration - as they demand guns are taken from people 'who don't need them'
- Murder of Hadiya Pendleton brings number of homicides in Chicago this month to 42 - making it the city's deadliest January in ten years
- Shooting took place in upscale neighbourhood a mile from Obama's home
- Hadiya's mother was planning on moving her family to a better area
- Cousin: 'She's never given us any problems - she was a walking angel'
The family of a 15-year-old honors student who was gunned down in Chicago just a week after she performed at Obama's inaugural events have sobbed as they pleaded with the public to find her killer.
Hadiya Pendleton had been let out early from school on Tuesday after an exam and was huddling under a canopy in a South Side park to escape the rain when she was shot in the back.
A witness said around 10 students in the park scattered when a man opened fire. Hadiya and another teen collapsed a block away in front of one of the upscale homes lining Oakenwalk Avenue.
'It's very painful to see your big sister get slaughtered,' ten-year-old Nathaniel Pendleton Jr. told the Chicago Tribune about Hadiya's death, as tributes flooded in for the popular star student.
Sorrow: Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy offers the city's condolences to the Pendelton family, Nathaniel Jr., Nathaniel Sr., and Cleopatra during a news conference seeking help from the public
'I'm not worried about where she is going, but I miss her,' his father Nate Sr. added. 'A whole section of my heart is gone. Get the guns out of the hands of people that don't need to have them.'
The grieving family, including Hadiya's mother Cleopatra, wiped away tears at a news conference in which Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy appealed for any information.
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Police said gang members were at the park where Hadiya was killed but she was not a gang member.
Instead, they believe she was an 'unintended target' when the gunman ran to the park and opened fire at 2.20 p.m. He then jumped into a waiting car and drove away, police said.
'As usual, the bad guy aims, but he never hits the other bad guy. He hits the one that hurts the most to lose,' Chicago Police Officer and attorney Damon Stewart, 36, Hadiya's godfather, told Fox32.
Heartbreak: Father Michael Pfleger , left, consoles Cleopatra Pendelton during the news conference
Pain: Cleopatra Pendelton, left, is consoled by her sister Kimiko Pettis, the day after her daughter was killed
Another student from her school was shot in the leg and is in serious condition in hospital. He has been identified by friends as 17-year-old Lawrence Sellers, DNAinforeported.
The tragedy comes days after Obama, whose Chicago home is only a mile from the murder scene, announced plans to ban assault weapons as part of a drastic overhaul of gun laws.
As more details of Hadiya's death emerged, former Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who herself survived being shot at point-blank range in 2011, spoke determinedly at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on how to curb gun violence on Wednesday.
The battle for gun control comes after Chicago endured its most deadly January for ten years, with Hadiya's death bringing the total killings in the city since the start of the year to 42.
Tragic: Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was shot dead as she stood in a Chicago park with friends on Tuesday. It comes a week after she performed as part of her school band (pictured left in uniform) at Obama's inauguration
Missed: Hadiya with a friend in Washington D.C. last week after she performed at inaugural event
The shooting occurred just a few blocks from the teenagers' elite school, King College Prep, and a mile from the president's lavish Chicago home on Greenwood Avenue.
'The school is good but the neighborhood is not,' student Anta Nije told Fox. 'When we step outside the school, anything can happen to us.'
In fact, relatives said Hadiya's mother was intending to move away to ensure her daughter's safety and a good education.
'Believe it or not, her mom was just looking to move to Naperville,' Hadiya's cousin, Shatira Wilks, said. 'Her mom wanted her to take her kids to an even better community and make sure her education is number one. Her daughter has never ever given her mother a problem, this girl was literally a walking angel.'
Performance: The King College Prep band is pictured in D.C. Hadiya also performed with the drill team
Loved: Hadiya is pictured (third from left) with her fellow Majorettes teammates at the elite school
Top student: One friend uploaded this photo of Hadiya taking part in the school band and drill team
A DEADLY TREND: GUNS IN CHICAGO
Hadiya's death brings Chicago homicides this month to 42 - making it the most deadly January in Chicago in 10 years. The last time there were as many murders was in January 2002, when there were 45.
It also comes after there were more than 500 killings in the city in 2012.
This weekend, a Chicago mother lost her fourth child to gun crime. Shirley Chambers had previously lost two sons and a daughter in shootings stretching back 18 years, but on Saturday her only surviving child, Ronnie Chambers, was shot in the head while sitting in a parked car in the west side of the city.
While there are strict gun laws in the state and city, police are finding more weapons on the streets of Chicago than much larger cities.
They seized 7,400 guns in crimes or unpermitted uses in Chicago last year, compared with 3,285 in New York City, the New York Times reported. Authorities have confiscated 574 guns since the start of the year - 124 of them last week alone.
Hadiya, a sophomore at King's, had attended the inauguration and performed at inaugural events with the school band and the Majorettes dance team, the Tribune reported.
Friends added that she was a volleyball player for the school and well-liked - and even had plans to go on a French-exchange program.
'She was working on some sort of exchange program, where she was going to go to school in Paris,' her godfather said. 'She was a great student.'
Hadiya had aspirations to become a pharmacist or a journalist and had interest in attending Northwestern University, relatives told the Tribune.
'There were a lot of good opportunities that were coming her way. She was just taking them all,' Lakeisha Stewart, 37, Hadiya's godmother said. 'She was the kid who you had to say, 'Slow down, you can’t do everything".
'I've known this little girl her entire life. I can't think of a moment that this child did anything wrong. She always strived to do the right thing.'
Her cousin added: 'She's a huge reader, loves stories and novels and was naturally smart, always on the honor roll. She was caught up in the violence of the city.'
Fellow student Janai Bates, 17, said she didn't know of anyone who had any problems with either of the victims.
Scene: She was at this South Side park with friends when a man ran towards them and opened fire
Location: The shooting took place just a mile from the Chicago home of President Obama
'Lawrence and Hadiya aren’t the type of people to get in a conflict with anybody,' she said. 'Everybody loved them, they joked with everybody, they give out that warmth.'
Students wore red to school in remembrance and were pictured taking part in a prayer circle.
Police confirmed she had no arrest history and 'by all indications the female victim was an unintended target'.
But their statement added: 'Preliminary information indicates that most of the members of the group were gang members.'
Loss: Hadiya, pictured, died an hour later, while the other teenage victim remains in hospital
Popular: Friends said that the talented student was well-liked at school and 'gave out warmth'
Teenagers at the park were not cooperating with police on Tuesday night and investigators do not have any detailed descriptions of the attacker or his vehicle, the Tribune reported.
As of Tuesday evening, no one was in police custody in connection with the shooting.
Roxane Hubbard, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 19 years, told DNAinfo she has never heard of a shooting on her block.
'President Obama's house is like three blocks from here, so this is not typical,' she said.
Students in the marching band from the school went to Washington, D.C., to take part in the Presidential Inauguration Heritage Music Festival.
Remembrance: Fellow students wore red and formed a prayer circle for Hadiya on Wednesday
They also performed at a presidential brunch and at a political event at Howard University, ABC30reported. The drill team also performed and 200 students from the school attended in total.
When asked about Hadiya's death, presidential spokexman Jay Carney called it a 'terrible tragedy' for someone to be killed when they had 'so much of their life ahead of them'.
'The president and first lady's thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,' he said. 'All of our thoughts and prayers are with her family.'
Curbing gun violence across the city has been a major priority for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff.
On Wednesday, he became emotional as he paid tribute to the murdered teenager.
Grief: A photograph on Twitter shows photos, notes and toys placed by the teenager's locker
'She is what is best in our city,' he said. 'A child going to school, who takes a final exam, who had just been to the inaugural.'You look at her, you look at how she talked about her future. She took her final exams. She had dreams. And this gang-banger, this punk took that away from Cleopatra. They took it away from Hadiya. And in my view, they took it away from the city of Chicago.'
He added: 'If anybody has any information, you are not a snitch. You’re a citizen.'
The city's police superintendent Garry McCarthy also spoke out about violence in the city on Tuesday after returning from a meeting with the president in Washington.
He said he discussed the 'reasonableness' of gun laws as he met Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
'There seems to be a consensus now among law enforcement, and as this consensus among Americans that the reason ability of the gun laws has to be examined,' McCarthy said.
VIDEO: Chicago teen gunned down after taking part in inauguration
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