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Red, Black & Blue

Chicago woman killed same day sister sat behind Obama

by Associated Press | February 17, 2013 at 4:42 PM
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President Barack Obama speaks to students and guests during a visit to Hyde Park Academy High School on February 15, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. This would be the final stop of a three-state tour to promote the agenda from his State of the Union Address. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama speaks to students and guests during a visit to Hyde Park Academy High School on February 15, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. This would be the final stop of a three-state tour to promote the agenda from his State of the Union Address. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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CHICAGO (AP) — An 18-year-old Chicago woman was killed on the same day her sister sat on the stage behind President Barack Obama, listening to him push for gun control legislation.

Janay Mcfarlane was shot once in the head around 11:30 p.m. Friday in North Chicago, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd told the Chicago Sun-Times. Mcfarlane, the mother of a 3-month-old boy, was in the Chicago suburb visiting friends and family.

North Chicago police said two people are being questioned in connection with Mcfarlane’s death, but no charges have been filed.

“I really feel like somebody cut a part of my heart out,” Angela Blakely, Mcfarlane’s mother, said.

Blakely said the bullet that killed Mcfarlane was meant for a friend.

Hours earlier, Mcfarlane’s 14-year-old sister sat feet from Obama at Hyde Park Career Academy, where he spoke about gun violence and paid tribute to Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old honor student fatally shot last month in a South Side park. Police have said it was a case of mistaken identity, and two people have been charged.

Pendleton’s death was one of more than 40 homicides in Chicago in January, a total that made it the deadliest January in the city in more than a decade. Pendleton, a drum majorette, had recently performed during Obama’s inauguration in Washington and the slaying happened about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from his Chicago home.

Blakely told the newspaper that Janay Mcfarlane had been 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 was supposed to graduate from an alternative school this spring, Blakely said, and wanted to go into the culinary arts.

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

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

  • In this Dec. 15, 2012 file photo, Illinois state Sen. Toi Hutchinson speaks during a candidate presentation at the 2nd Congressional District slating meeting in South Holland, Ill. Hutchinson is one of more than a dozen candidates running in a special primary election Feb. 26 to replace former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. who resigned in November 2012. Like much of the national conversation these days, the race to replace Jackson in Congress has been dominated by one topic: guns. Nearly half of 2nd District voters live on the South Side of Chicago, where some of the nation’s worst gun violence has been heavily concentrated. (AP Photo/John Smierciak, File)
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  • President Barack Obama jokes around with friends after an errant shot nearly hit him while playing golf with friends on the 9th hole at the Mid Pacific Country Club in Kailua, Hawaii, December 28, 2010. Obama is spending the last days of the year vacationing with his family in Hawaii. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB
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Filed in: Chicago, Politics | Related Topics: Barack Obama, Chicago, Gun Control, Gun Violence, Guns, Hadiya Pendleton, Janay Mcfarlane, Murder, Shooting, Speech
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