Teenage Girl Shot in Chicago a Week After Performing for the Inauguration

Well, this is a heartbreaker. A 15-year-old girl was shot and killed yesterday in Chicago, a week after she traveled to Washington, D.C., where she performed with her high-school band at ceremonies for President Obama's inauguration. 

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Hadiya Pendleton was a student at King College Prep, and she got out of school early yesterday because of exams, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to the police, Pendleton and a group of about 10 or 12 students went to a nearby park and were hiding under a canopy from a rain storm when a man pulled up, got out of a car, ran toward the group, and opened fire. Pendleton and another teenager, a boy, were hit. The boy is now in serious condition at a Chicago children's hospital. Police seem believe that some of the kids in the group were gang members, but Pendleton was a great kid, by all accounts. "As usual, the bad guy aims, but he never hits the other bad guy... He hits the one that hurts the most to lose," Chicago Police Officer Damon Stewart, Pendleton's godfather, told the Chicago Sun-Times. She was planning an exchange trip to Paris this summer through her school and had performed at the Heritage Music Festival during inauguration week.

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This is another heart-breaking loss in a long list of heartbreaking homicides in Chicago. The violence in the city has garnered national attention, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. There were 42 homicides in the city in January, making it the deadliest start to a new year since 2002.