Funeral arrangements for Hadiya Pendleton were announced Friday. The 15-year-old King College Prep high school student and majorette was shot Jan. 29 in a city park in the North Kenwood community on the South Side.
She died shortly after at University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
Another boy who was with her and a group of students in the park was shot in the leg and is recovering at a local hospital.
Visitation for Pendleton will be held Friday at Calahan Funeral Home, 7030 S. Halsted St., from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Funeral services will be held Saturday at Greater Harvest Baptist Church, 5141 S. State St., beginning with a 9 a.m. wake.
Police are still searching for the girl’s killer. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said investigators believe the gunman who fired on the group of students in the Vivian Harsh Park likely thought the group to be rival gangs infringing on turf. McCarthy said police have leads and tips in the case that they are working on.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for anyone with information in the case to come forward.
“If anybody has any information, you are not a snitch; you’re a citizen. You’re a good citizen in good standing if you help,” said Emanuel.
At a press conference Saturday at Rainbow PUSH, located blocks from the park where the shooting occurred, Rev. Jesse Jackson called for President Barack Obama to come to Chicago to talk about gun violence. The park is located about one mile north of Obama’s home.
Jackson, who also that day held a silent march from PUSH through North Kenwood to the park, said Obama’s presence in Chicago would “show ultimate national seriousness” about gun violence.
Shatira Welks said at the press conference that the gunman should not have refuge.
“You know your child. You know your cousin. You know your friend. You know your relative. You know who’s done this. All they’re gonna do is do something to somebody else’s child,” she said.
Community, faith and other groups have added to a pool of reward money for information leading to the gunman’s arrest. Ald. Will Burns, in whose 4th Ward the shooting happened, and Rev. Corey Brooks of New Beginnings Church are among the reward contributors.
The reward now stands at $40,000.
A tearful Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton said she will miss her daughter. For her and Hadiya’s father, Nathaniel, the loss is unimaginable.
“There’s a whole section of my heart that’s gone,” said the grieving mother.
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