Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton holds the hand of her ten-year-old son as they listen to speakers during an event with police and community leaders at a neighborhood park where her daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton comforts his son Nathaniel, 10, and his wife Cleopatra as they listen to speakers at a press conference in a neighborhood park where Nate’s daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton comforts his son Nathaniel, 10, as they listen to speakers at a press conference in a neighborhood park where Nate’s daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton is comforted near a neighborhood park where her daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire on her and friends in the park yesterday while they were hanging out on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton comforts his wife Cleopatra as they listen to Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy speak at a press conference in a neighborhood park where their daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton shows a picture of his daughter Hadiya on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy comforts Jahlil Pettis at a neighborhood park where Jahlil’s cousin Hadiya Pendleton was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton suffered every mother’s nightmare in January when her 15-year-old daughter, Hadiya, was shot to death, not long after attending the inauguration with her high school marching band. Pendleton attended the State of the Union Address as a guest of the first lady, and has become a symbol for Americans seeking stricter gun control laws. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton (R) is comforted near the neighborhood park where his daughter Hadiya was killed on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 30: Nate Pendleton shows a picture of his daughter Hadiya on January 30, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Fifteen-year-old Hadiya was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire in the park yesterday while she was hanging out with friends on the warm rainy afternoon under a shelter in the park. Hadiya was a majorette in her high school band and recently performed in Washington, D.C. during the inauguration. President Obama’s Chicago home is less than a mile from the park where Hadiya was killed. Another person was wounded in the leg during the shooting. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 31: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel discusses a plan to reassign 200 police officers from administrative duties back to patrol duties during a press conference on January 31, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has been faced with a rising murder rate largely attributed to an increase in gang related violence. Last year the city had more than 500 murders. The city has had more than 40 murders in January 2013, surpassing the total for January 2012. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 31: Chicago Police Superintendant Garry McCarthy (R) listens as Mayor Rahm Emanuel (L) discusses a plan to reassign 200 police officers from administrative duties back to patrol duties during a press conference on January 31, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has been faced with a rising murder rate largely attributed to an increase in gang related violence. Last year the city had more than 500 murders. The city has had more than 40 murders in January 2013, surpassing the total for January 2012. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton has drawn national attention, prompting renewed calls for gun regulation and reigniting the public outrage created by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Now, Hadiya’s story has reached the White House.
Asked about a petition posted on the White House’s “We the People” website, calling on President Obama and his family attend Pendleton’s funeral in their hometown of Chicago, spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that he hadn’t heard about the signature gathering effort, but that “the president and first lady’s thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton.”
Pendleton was shot to death Tuesday as she and a group of friends stood beneath a bus shelter after taking final exams at nearby King College Prep. Pendleton, a majorette in the school’s marching band, had performed with the band in Washington D.C. during Obama’s second Inaugural.
Related:
- Friend of slain Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton: I don’t know how to cope
- Video surfaces of young Hadiya Pendleton in PSA about gang violence
Her death — in a neighborhood not far from the Chicago suburb where the Obamas lived prior to entering the White House — has refocused attention on the rampant gun violence in Chicago, which marked a grim milestone of 500 murders in 2012 — with 435 of those committed with guns. It has also returned the issue of urban violence to the broader discussion on gun control, which has focused on mass shootings like the ones in Newtown and Aurora, rather than the daily violence experienced in many urban centers.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the city will put more than 200 additional officers on the street to try and combat violence, and he spoke passionately about Hadiya’s case, as have her family and friends this week. Hadiya’s case was also brought up during Senate hearings on gun control — mentioned by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.
Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport.
