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

(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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