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.
Hadiya Pendleton was such a whirlwind of activity — from preparing to travel abroad to performing at President Barack Obama’s inauguration festivities — that family members would jokingly tell the 15-year-old to slow down.
"There were a lot of good opportunities that were coming her way. She was just taking them all,” said Lakeisha Stewart, 37, Hadiya’s godmother. "She was the kid who you had to say, ‘Slow down, you can’t do everything.' "
Pendleton was hanging out with her volleyball team near King College Prep on the South Side Tuesday afternoon when she was fatally shot in the back when a gunman filed into a crowd of students, according to family and police.
“All of it just makes no sense,” Stewart said. “She was following (her parents') rules.”
Just last week, at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, Hadiya sent her godparents a text and a photo of her and her teammates in Washington, D.C., Stewart said. She had not gotten the chance to talk to Hadiya about the details of the trip since she returned from the East Coast.
Hadiya, who has a 10-year-old brother, had also been preparing to travel to Paris with her school, Stewart said, and loved to dance. She was a majorette on the school's drill team.
Hadiya’s parents made sure she stayed involved in school, said her godfather, Damon Stewart, 36, an attorney and Chicago police officer. He said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“He life was dominated by her activities and the things she was into,” he said.
“I’ve known this little girl her entire life," added Lakeisha Stewart. "I can’t think of a moment that this child did anything wrong. She always strived to do the right thing."
At King, Bria Carter and two friends said the halls of the school were unusually quiet as students mourned Hadiya’s death.
"People are crying at school," said Carter, 17, a friend of Hadiya. "Those who knew her are so hurt.
"She was an amazing person -- always positive," Carter said. "She was one of those people everyone loved. She was the sweetest thing."
Brothers Addison and Zion Morgan said many of their classmates took to social media Tuesday night to express their emotions.
"Based off of the tweets, everyone is surprised and shocked by this," said senior Addison Morgan, 17.
Freshman Zion Morgan, 15, said he was in a U.S. History class with Hadiya. "She was always smiling," Zion Morgan said. "She would always raise her hand in class."
Hadiya and a group of others had decided to hang out at Harsh Park about three blocks of the school Tuesday after taking their exams. About a dozen teens had taken shelter under a canopy during a rainstorm when a boy or man jumped a fence in the park, ran toward them and opened fire around 2:20 p.m., police said.
Hadiya was wounded in the back and a 16-year-old boy -- also a student at King -- was shot in the leg, police said.
The attacker got into an auto and fled, police said. No arrests have been reported.
At the park Wednesday, neighbors along the well-maintained North Kenwood block could not remember any trouble there before.
The small park's bright blue and orange playground equipment is often used by toddlers down the street, a neighbor said, but otherwise remains quiet.
The neighbor, who declined to be named, lives next door to the park and said it's a "perfect neighborhood."
Teens and older children are not often visitors of the park, he said. The block is filled with "Harvard attorneys," "business owners" and other executives, the neighbor said. "No one knows about our block," he said. "It's a quiet place."
Hadiya's godmother agreed. “It amazed me when I found out what park it was," she said. "Nothing I have ever heard ever goes on over there.”
