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Crime

Tragedy: 15-Year-Old Honors Student Who Performed at Obama’s Inauguration Gunned Down in Chicago

Jan. 30, 2013 11:17am Erica Ritz

15 Year Old Hadiya Pendleton Who Performed at Obamas Inauguration Shot Dead in Chicago Park

(Photo: Police Handout via The Dailiy Mail)

A 15-year-old honors student from Chicago who just got back from performing at President Obama’s inauguration has been shot dead by thugs in a local park, police say.

King College Prep sophomore Hadiya Pendleton was a majorette and a volleyball star, her friends add, who was part of a band and drill team that played for President Obama.

The New York Daily News continues:

Hadiya Pendleton was among approximately a dozen teens taking cover from the rain in a local park at 2:30 p.m. when a gunman jumped a fence and opened fire, according to reports. Pendleton and other King College Prep students had been dismissed from school early due to exams.

The gunshots sent the entire group running out of the park in a panic, authorities say. Pendleton and a 16-year-old boy were both hit and collapsed about one block away.

Pendleton was shot once in the back and later died at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. The wounded boy was in serious condition Tuesday night, according to the Chicago Tribune. [Emphasis added]

Neighbors were horrified by the news.

“There has to be an end to it. It’s just too much. The children cannot go to school. They’re in fear,” Bonita O’Bannion reportedly said.

Police say Pendleton wasn’t affiliated with a gang herself, but most of the people she was with at the park were. None of them stuck around to help her, or provide information for police.

WGN News has more information:

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Comments (185)

SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:46am
.
Just another day in Obama’s Hood………..

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- CatB
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:54am
  Must be repeated and repeated .. Not possible … Chicago is a “gun free zone” … they have some of the TOUGHEST gun laws. Keep repeating … this is TRUE … libs repeat LIES and people believe them .. we must counter the lies with truth .. OVER AND OVER.
  
  Report this comment
- SpankDaMonkey
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:10pm
  .
  Welfare Slaves just out having a good time. And they want to take my guns. I wonder if Obama would let his kids play in the park? …..
  
  Report this comment
- AvengerK
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:14pm
  Meanwhile Mayor Rahm Emanuel does absolutely nothing. No wonder he and Obama get along so well.
  
  Report this comment
- sillyfreshness
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:16pm
  This story is not true. Chicago is a “gun free zone” so there is no way anybody could be killed by a gun. Now they want to take that same policy and apply it to the entire citizenry of the US. First they need to make the White House, Capitol Building, DHS, FEMA, DOJ, ATF, the military, and police “gun free zones” before applying it to everyone else.
  
  Report this comment
- Fubared
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:20pm
  It is sick and sad. But 0 did organize Chi-town before he handed it over to dead fish Rahm.
  http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/chicago-murders-top-afghanistan-death-toll/
  
  Report this comment
- henryKnox
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:21pm
  They were gang bangers! Has anyone said we should make street gangs illegal?
  
  Report this comment
- OhioRifleman
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:32pm
  In Chicago, this is no tragedy. It is just another minute segment on the 6 o’clock news.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Jerk
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:00pm
  I’ve been censored for explaining that they brought their Mogadishu culture with them.
  
  Report this comment
- Red Meat
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:01pm
  Oh well.
  
  Report this comment
- ginger100
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:16pm
  Rahm ought to put a wall around his city to protect his people from recieving weapons from outside the city.
  
  Report this comment
- brooks1977
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:24pm
  Reporter: President Obama do you have any comments regarding the recent death of the honor student who performed at your inauguration?
  
  Obama: If I had a son he would have been in the group of students and simply used is God like powers passed down to him from me to stop this tragedy.
  
  Report this comment
- Soulfire1975
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:35pm
  How is that gun control working out for her and her family in a gun free zone of chicago?
  
  Report this comment
- Detroit paperboy
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:47pm
  Gun free zone………….gun free zone…………..
  
  Report this comment
- daniel3839
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 3:34pm
  Nice TOWN! I know! BAN GUNS!
  
  Report this comment
- daniel3839
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 3:36pm
  It appears we have a “BLACK” problem. Or am I a racist for pointing a stone cold ‘FACT”?
  
  Report this comment
- chfields62
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 4:08pm
  Wait a minute…I thought Chicago had the toughest gun control laws in the country?? I guess the criminals didn’t get the word that they can’t have guns and shoot people. The perfect model for the success of gun control……
  
  Report this comment
- SquareHead
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 4:37pm
  Poor girl, was another victim to emotional brain dead liberalism that public schools have been pushing for 50 years, which has destroyed so many cities.
  
  Report this comment
- turkey13
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 6:21pm
  As I read the story – unless I missed something, the city park is at fault for not putting up the “GUN FREE ZONE” and ‘GANG FREE ZONE” signs. The guy did’nt know it was a park and it just looked like another gang taking over his turf.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Almighty_Creestof
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 6:46pm
  “Police say Pendleton wasn’t affiliated with a gang herself, but most of the people she was with at the park were. None of them stuck around to help her, or provide information for police.”
  
  That sounds right…bunch of low class, gutless, cowardly individuals…perfect candidates for gangs.
  
  Report this comment
- G-WHIZ
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:51am
  Soooo….no gunz allowed by legal citizens to protect their own children and famillies. Only crimminagangs can steel them and freely use them cause Witholder will never imprison them!!
  
  Report this comment
- michaelmoron
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:24pm
  Another Victim of a Liberal’s “Sitting Duck Zone”.
  
  If Chicago had Law Abiding Gun owners with Concealed Permits, this girl might have been saved.
  
  She was nearly old enough to carry one, to defend herself.
  
  Want to address the “Gun Violence issues”? Address these “GUN FREE ZONES”.
  
  Report this comment
virgie morgan
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:44am
Well, they just didn’t make it clear enough to the criminals which guns are legal for them to have and all the regulations they need to follow so they could have shot her with a legal gun, or even used a knife

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- circleDwagons
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 2:19pm
  Need to post bigger GUN FREE ZONE signs. Also need bullet free zones
  
  Report this comment
TheOldeCrow
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:43am
As much as I detest comparisons where Death is concerned, this one is special.
Let us see if the following [or anything like it] occurs :
Barry compares her to one of hs daughters…….
…who wasn’t gun-protected as his daughters are……….
….and had massive failed gun-control policies as Band-Aid cures for her [supposed] protection.
No Beer Summits this time, Barry…. and Michelle planting a garden, and giving out dietary advice is not gonna make it, either.
You and yours own this one….and all the others to follow………..

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- EgbertThrockmorton
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:52pm
  This IS the legacy of Democratic “leadership” in a solidly Democrat city, where platitudes mean far more than the life of one school kid.
  This young woman had her whole life and promise ahead of her, her Democratic city and state “leadership” failed her completely.
  This is the lasting legacy of shame of the Obamafuerher and his Puppet-Masters.
  
  Report this comment
Big Media Bias
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:42am
Nothing will change. The media will ignore this story. The blame will be put on guns and Republicans. I do not care what happens to any child in Chicago. Even their parents will play along with the Democrats for political points or try to win the lottery through a lawsuit settlement against someone, some business, some organization or donations from the public. I really do not care any more. Democrats have proven they do not care. Not like a conservative can do anything about these liberal/RINO hell holes anyway. I do not care.

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- hatchetjob
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 2:59pm
  I don’t care either. All the while former Mayor (School bus) Nagin from New Orleans gets a pass. Harry (dead fish) Reid gets a pass. No one is being held accountable for their corrupt actions.
  
  Report this comment
thegreatcarnac
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:38am
Chicago, Detroit, and all the other major cities run by democrats are rotting. They are collapsing from liberalism. Their citizens are never safe anywhere because, like communism,……liberalism always destroys. Chicago is a joke and south Chicago is run by gangbangers. No one will do anything about it but point and say ‘look how bad guns are’. In reality there are probably more guns in my neighborhood in the Houston area than in all of south Chicago,……yet we have no shootings. The problem with guns is liberalism. The problem with the country is liberalism. Liberalism enables criminality and murder. Guns are innocent.

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EnigmanDen
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:38am
Beautiful girl, horrible tragedy. I guess the criminals didn’t get the memo about the strict gun laws in Chicago.

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- Rowgue
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:21pm
  I’m not sure I can call it a tragedy when almost everyone she was with were known gang members. More like regular old stupidity.
  
  Report this comment
- RobbieTLHughie
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 10:49am
  Leave it to someone at The Blaze to justify senseless violence because he wants to be “politically incorrect”. It gets pretty tiresome.
  
  Report this comment
CWPrequired
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:37am
Animals, how do you describe them any other way!

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- Eddiespaghetti
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:52pm
  Animals are not killing their own unless trained by humans.
  
  Report this comment
theBru
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:36am
dam guns did it again!!! when will you people learn, we need stricter gun laws…oops, isn’t Chicago where the gun lord himself lives, ole rammin rahm? so, rammin rahm, how’s those strict gun laws working for you now??? dam shame, these punks picking on innocent kids…

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:36am
None of the people she was with stuck around to help her, or provide information for police.
There is no hope for Chicago. Just dig a giant hole, push it in, and cover it.

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OldSurfRat
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:36am
We need to start taking care of gangs the same way Hoover did. Identify and then eliminate. I don’t care what color you are if you are in a violent gang then let me introduce you to your maker.
Call me a vigilantly if you want but it works. Right there, right then, right on the street.

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- RANGER1965
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 2:40pm
  Much like our enemy in the desert sand, force is the only thing they respect.
  
  Anything else is viewed as a weakness. When you’ve killed enough of them in sufficient numbers, they may still hate you, but they will respect you. You will not stop gang violence or terrorism, but you will significantly decrease it.
  
  The Russians understand this principle down to their very bones. About 4 years ago Muslim Terrorists, about 20 took over a crowed theater. They were armed with the usual small arms, and they wired the exits with explosives, and terrorized the audience. They had chests filled with food, and planned to be there for weeks.
  After analyzing the situation for a few hours….A FEW HOURS!!!, they pumped a powerful narcotic gas into the theater. It was so strong that it knocked everyone out within seconds. A few innocents died because of age, weak hearts, etc.
  The terrorists just disapeared. Except they really didn’t disappear.
  They were taken to one of those old Soviet KGB Prisons, they were tortured, and every grisly detail was filmed. Eventually they were executed.
  The Russians pumped their stomachs full of pig blood, they wrapped their bodies in pig skins, and buried them in pig s**t. All of this was filmed.
  These films were given to the Chechnyian governement and the surviving families of the terrorists. There has not been a major terrorists incident in Moscow since then. And I doubt there ever will be.
  
  Report this comment
huey6367
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:36am
I say if you put in place more regulation and then don’t enforce it and then ban assault weapons, that should do the trick. Then everything will be fine. (sarcasm)

She propbably wasn’t an true Obama supporter, anyway.

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RANGER1965
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:34am
If they would have had an illuminated sign in the park saying it was a gun free zone, this wouldn’t have happened.

Folks, we need to stop these tragedies. Lets petition the government to put up signs everywhere, and make the entire United States a gun free zone. That’ll stop those criminals!

/sarcasm off.

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- Just_Us2
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:53am
  If only we had a sign….if only….
  
  Report this comment
FaithfulFriend
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:34am
The narrative put forth in this story is asinine. Chicago has a gang problem. It’s just that simple. But because the gangs aren’t white gangs, they ignore the issue destroying their society in order to embrace and protect a corrupt culture.

It’s just the Chicago way.

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- sun_yat_sen
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:17pm
  How many white gangs are there? I’m sure there are some wannabes, but, seriously, where are there cities with white gangs? Maybe someone can fill me in.
  
  Report this comment
MisterSarcastic
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:33am
Hey Chicago, you want to solve the problem? Pass another gun law. Yeah, that will fix it.

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SREGN
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:33am
This must be a hoax. Chicago has some of the strictest gun control legislation in the country.

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- henryKnox
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:26pm
  Right, this couldn’t have happened because it was illegal for these gangs to have guns in the park. It was illegal for them to have guns in the city, period. So, you can’t honestly expect us to believe this story.
  
  Report this comment
JonBoyFL
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:32am
Every, morally and financially bankrupt, crap hole, urban den of iniquity has been ruled by democrats for 30 + years. Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia and on and on. Is it any wonder people decent people have been abandoning city centers in droves? Just keep voting for the same people and expect different outcomes.

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- strawberry411a
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:38am
  ….and this just about sums it all up. Focus Obama . FOCUS. It’s not the NRA and you know it. You KNOW what the problem is.
  
  Report this comment
commoncents5
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:32am
Round up the gangs and put them in cages in a zoo for all of mankind to view what evil looks like. Until evil is taken out of darkness and healed by the LIGHT it will continue to terrorize..

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- booger71
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:38am
  Police say Pendleton wasn’t affiliated with a gang herself, but most of the people she was with at the park were. None of them stuck around to help her, or provide information for police.
  ===================
  Maybe if she had not hung out with bangers, she might not have been shot.
- LifesNotARehersal
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:14pm
  @Booger71 Actually she wasn’t hanging out with those gangbangers at the park. She and her friends took shelter from the rain in the park where gangbangers just happened to be hanging out.
  
  Report this comment
Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:30am
Chicago had 1834 murders in the last 4 years. Obama can’t fix the problem in his home city, how can we expect him to fix the country?

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- mercenary4freedom
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:55am
  Not one of them stopped to help them? Now there’s some real integrity amongst obama’s people..
  
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toiletclogga
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:30am
In the late 80′s early 90′s, Hollywood glorified the gang life of California, and it quickly spread across the nation. Ganglife, and disregard for the sanctity of human life is prevalent in the African Amerian communities throughout this nation. If one is looking for answers to the problems afflicting African Americans, it’s best to look with their communities. Single mothers with multiple children through different fathers! Fathers who are nowhere to be found! Fathers who deal drugs, commit crimes, belong in gangs, and don’t provide for their children. Community leaders who would rather lay blame on the white establishment for the woes of the black community rather than laying blame on the community itself! Address the root issue and you will address the problem. There is absolutely nothing wholesome in the African American communities which would offer another option to the gang life. The African American churches would rather preach divisiveness than unit through Christ.

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:28am
In my opinion, Obama is the Angel of Death.
Seems like everything he comes in contact with, dies.

He’s left a wake of dead people.
If he visits a business, it too dies.

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- Chromo200
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:23pm
  Nice.
  
  Report this comment
- sun_yat_sen
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 1:11pm
  But, flies seem to like him.
  
  Report this comment
- barber2
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 5:21pm
  LEAD: Bet Petraeus has an opinion of mixing with Toxic Barack who even threw his white grandmother, who gave him all of his opportunities, under the bus…
  
  Report this comment
chips1
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:26am
She must have said something that Obama didn’t like. He still controls Chicago, apparently.

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- civilwarcometh
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:30am
  It’s that dang global warming i tell ya…http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/30/msnbc-chicago-murder-rate-blamed-on-wait-for-it-global-warming/
  
  Report this comment
- 700P
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:26pm
  After reading the headline a couple times does this sound like a coincidence? Any number of shadowy liberal groups could have hidden hand in something like this. In their eyes one death is justified if it saved hundreds or thousands of other (i.e. white) children.
  
  As I reflect on this tragedy, it occurs to me Black Americans are like Palestinians, the DNC is like Iran happy to capitalize on their misery and radicals like Van Jones, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louie Farrakan are like Hamas. I compare the DNC to a foreign country because they neither understand nor cherish our heritage.
  
  Report this comment
colascguy
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:23am
What a beautiful girl it is a shame that Chicago did not have gun laws to protector her life from being cut short.

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- right-wing-waco
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:37am
  Chicago DOES have plenty of gun laws. We keep telling you libs that the gangsters do not obey the laws and you can write even more laws and they will STILL not obey them. The problem is criminals… not guns or laws.
  
  I, also, find this a very sad story and I hope that these murders will stop someday.
  
  Report this comment
- colascguy
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 3:37pm
  Sarcasm man. Even Libs know about the gun laws in Chicago NY DC etc… they just chose to ignore the fact that criminals also ignore these laws. Probably why they are called criminals correct?
  
  Report this comment
- dovndce
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 10:03pm
  How could you call THAT thing “beautiful”? All Liberals (Democrats) no matter what their race are hideous.
  
  Report this comment
Joss
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:22am
Murdered. The word you’re looking for is murdered.

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Cavallo
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:20am
Chicago, land of strict gun control… hows that working out for you fascists? It’s more dangerous to live in Chicago than Afghanistan. Chicago is going the way of Detroit. Who runs Chicago, anyway?

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- gyro
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:28am
  guess
  
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ozchambers
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:20am
If only Chicago had stricter gun laws.

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- JonSigMan
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:28am
  Yes, if only……
  
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