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| Washington Luminaries Among Those Mourning Chicago Shooting Victim | Washington Luminaries Among Those Mourning Chicago Shooting Victim |
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| CHICAGO — By the hundreds, people streamed into a church on this city’s South Side on Saturday, arriving from around Chicago and well beyond to say goodbye to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl many here had never actually met, but who in death had come to represent the miserable cost of gun and gang violence. | CHICAGO — By the hundreds, people streamed into a church on this city’s South Side on Saturday, arriving from around Chicago and well beyond to say goodbye to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl many here had never actually met, but who in death had come to represent the miserable cost of gun and gang violence. |
| An array of Washington officials — the first lady, Michelle Obama, Arne Duncan, the education secretary, and Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser — were among those expected at the funeral. Ms. Pendleton, a member of her high school’s majorette team, traveled to Washington to perform during President Obama’s inauguration festivities only a week before she was fatally shot here. | An array of Washington officials — the first lady, Michelle Obama, Arne Duncan, the education secretary, and Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser — were among those expected at the funeral. Ms. Pendleton, a member of her high school’s majorette team, traveled to Washington to perform during President Obama’s inauguration festivities only a week before she was fatally shot here. |
| Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has met with the girl’s family and spoken emotionally of her dreams for her future, was expected here, too, as was Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, who had alluded to Ms. Pendleton in his state-of-the-state address. | Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has met with the girl’s family and spoken emotionally of her dreams for her future, was expected here, too, as was Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, who had alluded to Ms. Pendleton in his state-of-the-state address. |
| As an emerging national debate about firearms had focused largely on mass shootings in places like Newtown, Conn., Ms. Pendleton’s death last month became a symbol for a different element of gun violence — urban and often quickly forgotten. Ms. Pendleton, a student at King College Prep high school, was shot Jan. 29 as she sat after school in a park about a mile from Mr. Obama’s Chicago home with friends — a group that the police say was probably mistakenly swept into the cross-fire of a gang fight. | As an emerging national debate about firearms had focused largely on mass shootings in places like Newtown, Conn., Ms. Pendleton’s death last month became a symbol for a different element of gun violence — urban and often quickly forgotten. Ms. Pendleton, a student at King College Prep high school, was shot Jan. 29 as she sat after school in a park about a mile from Mr. Obama’s Chicago home with friends — a group that the police say was probably mistakenly swept into the cross-fire of a gang fight. |
| In Chicago, people said they viewed the sudden rush of attention on Ms. Pendleton as a needed shift in the consciousness of the nation’s third-largest city, which experienced more than 500 homicides in 2012, many of them from gun violence, and 46 more deaths since the start of 2013. If the city had grown inured at times to the stories of gang-related shootings, largely on the South and West Sides, Ms. Pendleton’s death appeared — at least for now — to have reawakened many people, even those in more upscale neighborhoods away from the worst of the violence and far beyond Chicago. | In Chicago, people said they viewed the sudden rush of attention on Ms. Pendleton as a needed shift in the consciousness of the nation’s third-largest city, which experienced more than 500 homicides in 2012, many of them from gun violence, and 46 more deaths since the start of 2013. If the city had grown inured at times to the stories of gang-related shootings, largely on the South and West Sides, Ms. Pendleton’s death appeared — at least for now — to have reawakened many people, even those in more upscale neighborhoods away from the worst of the violence and far beyond Chicago. |
| “It should be a tipping point,” Andre Smith, head of Chicago Against Violence, a local group aimed at preventing neighborhood violence, said on Friday, as he and scores of others attended a visitation for Ms. Pendleton, whom he had not known while she was alive. “I just hope that it’s not here today and gone tomorrow,” Mr. Smith said. | “It should be a tipping point,” Andre Smith, head of Chicago Against Violence, a local group aimed at preventing neighborhood violence, said on Friday, as he and scores of others attended a visitation for Ms. Pendleton, whom he had not known while she was alive. “I just hope that it’s not here today and gone tomorrow,” Mr. Smith said. |
| “I bury a lot of young men,” he added later. “I speak at their funerals. I counsel their mothers. I’ve seen enough.” | “I bury a lot of young men,” he added later. “I speak at their funerals. I counsel their mothers. I’ve seen enough.” |
| In the days since Ms. Pendleton’s killing, a debate had ensued here over what the White House response should be. Some, including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, local newspaper editorial boards and students, had urged Mr. Obama to appear at Ms. Pendleton’s funeral. Some said he needed to draw the same attention to violence in his hometown and to the complicated urban questions of poverty, joblessness and gangs that he had earlier given to the mass shootings in Connecticut and elsewhere. Others, though, said that a White House presence here would only politicize the funeral of a young girl and create a needless media spectacle, even as scores of other Chicagoans had died in violence here with barely any notice at all. | In the days since Ms. Pendleton’s killing, a debate had ensued here over what the White House response should be. Some, including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, local newspaper editorial boards and students, had urged Mr. Obama to appear at Ms. Pendleton’s funeral. Some said he needed to draw the same attention to violence in his hometown and to the complicated urban questions of poverty, joblessness and gangs that he had earlier given to the mass shootings in Connecticut and elsewhere. Others, though, said that a White House presence here would only politicize the funeral of a young girl and create a needless media spectacle, even as scores of other Chicagoans had died in violence here with barely any notice at all. |
| Asked why Mr. Obama, who is expected to address gun restrictions in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, had chosen not to attend Ms. Pendleton’s funeral, his spokesman on Friday pointed out that Mrs. Obama and others from the administration would attend. | Asked why Mr. Obama, who is expected to address gun restrictions in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, had chosen not to attend Ms. Pendleton’s funeral, his spokesman on Friday pointed out that Mrs. Obama and others from the administration would attend. |
| “I think that represents the feeling that the president and the first lady both have about what happened to her and the tragedy that it represents both in real concrete terms to her family but also symbolically because of the tragedy of gun violence that our country has to deal with all too often,” the spokesman, Jay Carney, said. | |
| Family members of Ms. Pendleton said they were pleased and honored that Mrs. Obama, who has lived on the South Side of Chicago, as have Mr. Duncan and Ms. Jarrett, chose to come. | Family members of Ms. Pendleton said they were pleased and honored that Mrs. Obama, who has lived on the South Side of Chicago, as have Mr. Duncan and Ms. Jarrett, chose to come. |
| “It says to us that not only is she coming in support of our family, but she’s a parent,” said Shatira Wilks, a cousin of Ms. Pendleton who has in recent days been serving as a spokeswoman for the family. “She has daughters. She understands. She’s not being intrusive. It’s not about her being seen. She’s really, really a concerned individual, and I think the best gesture that they could have done was to come out and support Hadiya, my cousin, as Hadiya supported the president during the inauguration.” | “It says to us that not only is she coming in support of our family, but she’s a parent,” said Shatira Wilks, a cousin of Ms. Pendleton who has in recent days been serving as a spokeswoman for the family. “She has daughters. She understands. She’s not being intrusive. It’s not about her being seen. She’s really, really a concerned individual, and I think the best gesture that they could have done was to come out and support Hadiya, my cousin, as Hadiya supported the president during the inauguration.” |
| Still, for Ms. Pendleton’s family, this gathering was not about guns or politics or symbols, but about Ms. Pendleton. Friends described Ms. Pendleton, who had once appeared in a video aimed at discouraging kids from joining gangs, as a sweet and cheerful friend who twirled batons on the majorette team, was considering going to college to become a pharmacist, and had been imagining a sweet 16 party with a close friend in June. | Still, for Ms. Pendleton’s family, this gathering was not about guns or politics or symbols, but about Ms. Pendleton. Friends described Ms. Pendleton, who had once appeared in a video aimed at discouraging kids from joining gangs, as a sweet and cheerful friend who twirled batons on the majorette team, was considering going to college to become a pharmacist, and had been imagining a sweet 16 party with a close friend in June. |
| Around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, Ms. Pendleton walked with friends to Harsh Park in the North Kenwood neighborhood. As the group huddled under a canopy as it began to rain, a man suddenly approached, jumped a fence, ran toward the group, and began shooting. The police believe that the man mistook the group for members of a gang. | Around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, Ms. Pendleton walked with friends to Harsh Park in the North Kenwood neighborhood. As the group huddled under a canopy as it began to rain, a man suddenly approached, jumped a fence, ran toward the group, and began shooting. The police believe that the man mistook the group for members of a gang. |
| Ms. Pendleton, who the police say was an unintended target with no ties to gangs, was shot in the back. By Saturday, no arrests had been made in the case, although the police said they have received a significant number of tips and were pursuing all of them. | Ms. Pendleton, who the police say was an unintended target with no ties to gangs, was shot in the back. By Saturday, no arrests had been made in the case, although the police said they have received a significant number of tips and were pursuing all of them. |
| On Friday, during the visitation, a line of people stretched out the door of a funeral home on this city’s South Side and down the sidewalk. Inside, people passed quietly by the coffin of Ms. Pendleton, who was dressed in purple, her favorite color, as her childhood photographs flashed on screens on the walls. | On Friday, during the visitation, a line of people stretched out the door of a funeral home on this city’s South Side and down the sidewalk. Inside, people passed quietly by the coffin of Ms. Pendleton, who was dressed in purple, her favorite color, as her childhood photographs flashed on screens on the walls. |
| “We had high aspirations for her,” her grandfather, Nolen Cowley, said at one point. But he seemed puzzled by the outpouring of attention now, saying, “We never envisioned the possibility that this would be international news.” | “We had high aspirations for her,” her grandfather, Nolen Cowley, said at one point. But he seemed puzzled by the outpouring of attention now, saying, “We never envisioned the possibility that this would be international news.” |
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington, and Catrin Einhorn from New York. | Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington, and Catrin Einhorn from New York. |