Girl who performed at Obama's inauguration shot dead

Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl who performed at President Barack Obama's inauguration last week, has been shot dead in Chicago, a media report said. Pendleton was shot dead while hanging out with friends after school, reported NBC News.

She had performed with the King College Prep school band at Obama's inauguration. She was standing under a canopy in Vivian Gordon Harsh Park when a gunman came from an alley, opened fire and fled, police said.

She was shot in the back but managed to run about a block before she collapsed. She died at hospital.

A 16-year-old boy was wounded in the attack. Pendleton, who did not have a criminal record, was probably not the intended target. “Never in a million years did I think I would get a call that my own baby had been gunned down,” Pendleton’s mother, Cleo Cowley, was quoted as saying.

She said that Tuesday afternoon she got an unexpected call from one of her daughter’s friends. “She was screaming on the phone that Hadiya’s been shot, she’s been shot, and I just didn’t understand,” said Cowley.