CBS NEWS
CHICAGO -- A teenage girl who attended
presidential inauguration activities in Washington earlier this month
was shot to death at a Chicago park.
Police say 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot in the back Tuesday
and later died at University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. An
unidentified boy was shot in the leg and is being treated at the
hospital. No arrests have been made.
Hadiya was a majorette with the King College Prep High School band, which performed at several inaugural events. CBS Chicago affiliate WBBM-TV reports she was also an honor student and volleyball player.
Police
say Hadiya was one of about 12 teens under a canopy at a park to avoid
the rain when a man jumped a fence, ran toward the group and opened
fire. The man fled the scene in an auto. Police say the gunman was not
aiming at the girl.
Witnesses told WBBM-TV that shootings are rare in the neighborhood.
"We
hardly ... have any crime," said Jennifer West, who lives close to
where the incident occurred. "There's been a few break-ins over the past
two years since we've been here, but nothing that's ever caused alarm."
Chicago
has experienced a spike in gun violence over the past couple of years,
mostly motivated by gang wars. The city's homicide count eclipsed 500 last year for the first time since 2008.