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Woman Killed in Chicago Hours After Her Sister Sat Behind Obama on Stage
Janay Mcfarlane, 18, was shot and killed in Chicago Friday night. (Image source: Chicago Sun-Times)

Woman Killed in Chicago Hours After Her Sister Sat Behind Obama on Stage

"I really feel like somebody cut a part of my heart out."

President Barack Obama speaks during a visit to Hyde Park Career Academy in Chicago on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. (Getty Images)

An 18-year-old Chicago woman was shot and killed Friday night, just hours after her younger sister sat onstage behind President Barack Obama as he spoke about gun violence.

Janay Mcfarlane was visiting friends and family when she was shot once in the head around 11:30 p.m. Friday in North Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The bullet had been meant for a friend, said her mother, Angela Blakely. Mcfarlane had a 3-month-old son.

Janay Mcfarlane, 18, was shot and killed in Chicago Friday night. (Image source: Chicago Sun-Times)

“I really feel like somebody cut a part of my heart out,” Blakely said.

Hours before the slaying, Mcfarlane's 14-year-old sister Destini was part of a group of teens who sat onstage behind the president when he delivered remarks at Hyde Park Career Academy.

“Barack Obama said teenagers are killing each other,” Destini Mcfarlane told the Sun-Times Saturday. “He was saying we need to cut down on street violence.”

Mcfarlane's murder was apparently separate from the four shootings that took place in Chicago within a 90-minute period after Obama left. Those shootings occurred between about 5:55 p.m. and 7:20 p.m.; Mcfarlane was killed several hours later.

In his first extensive remarks about the overwhelming gun violence plaguing his adopted hometown, Obama paid tribute to Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old honor student fatally shot last month in a park days after performing at his second inauguration.

Blakely told the Sun-Times her daughter had been deeply affected by Pendleton's death.

“She always said after Hadiya Pendleton got killed, ‘Momma that’s so sad,’” Blakely said. “She was always touched by any kid that got killed. She was always touched by mothers who couldn’t be there for their babies because they were gone.”

Mcfarlane had been on track to graduate from an alternative school this spring and hoped to work in the culinary arts. Her infant son, Jayden, is now without a mother but has a supportive extended family, Blakely said.

“I’m just really, truly just trying to process it ­— knowing that I’m not taking my baby home any more,” she said.

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