A 15-year-old girl who had recently taken part in inauguration events in Washington was shot to death after leaving her South Side school Tuesday.
With outrage over his daughter's death spreading from City Hall to the White House, Nathaniel Pendleton made a public plea Wednesday for someone to step forward and bring the 15-year-old's killer to justice.
"They took the light of my life," Pendleton said at a news conference, where a $11,000 reward was announced for information about Tuesday's slaying of Hadiya Pendleton. "This guy, whoever he was, the gunman, man, you took the light of my life. Just look at yourself and just know that you took a bright person, an innocent person, a non-violent person."
Shaking his head and collecting himself, he continued, "This kid didn't like violence at all, didn't even like to fight, avoided a fight, moved away from anything that was not positive. She was a majorette, just came back from the inauguration. She was destined for great things and you stripped that from her."
Hadiya, who last week performed at President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities, was killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of students at Harsh Park, just blocks from King College Prep and about a mile from Obama's home in Kenwood on the South Side.
Presidential spokeman Jay Carney, asked about Hadiya's death Wednesday, said it was a “terrible tragedy” any time a young person is struck down “with so much of their life ahead of them.”
“The president and first lady's thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” he said. “All of our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”
Carney, asked about a petition urging President Barack Obama to attend Pendleton’s funeral, said he was not aware of the petition and had no scheduling announcements to make.
When asked if Obama had reached out to Pendleton’s family, Carney said he had no communications to share with reporters.
Carney also said that when Obama talks about gun violence in America he is not talking only about Newtown (Conn.) or Aurora (Colo.) or Oak Creek (Wis.) or Virginia Tech, but to shootings in Chicago and other parts of the country.
He added that while "we may not be able to prevent every act of gun violence. . .we need to take action to reduce gun violence” and “make sure that we’re doing everything we can in a responsible way to reduce this violence, to protect our children, including Hadiya Pendleton and others.”
Hadiya's death also came up at a news conference by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a particularly violent January in Chicago draws to a close.
Emanuel called Hadiya "what is best in our city" and urged anyone with information about the slaying to come forward.
"If anybody has any information, you are not a snitch, you're a citizen," the mayor said. "You're a good citizen in good standing if you help."
The mayor said he talked this morning with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, "going over what we need to do, what differences we have to do, what other tactics we have to adopt." He did not say what plans he and McCarthy discussed.
Later, McCarthy appeared with Hadiya's father at a news conference at Harsh Park to announce the reward.
"The fact is, at this point, we have very little to go on. The fact is that somebody knows something," he said, surrounded by family members and community leaders.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Church on the South Side, said the reward will be "a bounty out on the head of a killer before you kill somebody else.
"Your butt needs to be in jail," he said. "Somebody knows. . .right now, sitting in their home some young person knows, some young friend of theirs knows, some parent knows, some adult knows. Where are you?"
Pfleger compared Hadiya's slaying to the mass murder of school children in Newtown, Conn. "We should be just as outraged," he said.
$11K reward as White House calls girl's slaying a 'terrible tragedy'
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$11K reward as White House calls girl's slaying a 'terrible tragedy'
