Courtesy of Damon Stewart, via Associated Press Hadiya Pendleton in an undated family photo.Michelle Obama plans to attend the funeral for a Chicago high school student killed last month in a shooting a week after performing for President Obama’s second inauguration.
A White House official said Mrs. Obama would attend the service for Hadiya Pendleton on Saturday, along with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education.
Ms. Pendleton’s killing has brought wider attention to Chicago’s struggle to stop rising gun and gang violence amid a larger nationwide debte about gun control. The White House official spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mrs. Obama’s plans had not formally been announced.
Ms. Pendleton,15, was gunned down by a gang member while taking shelter from rain with about a dozen other people in a park less than a mile from the Obamas’ Kenwood home. Previous reports indicated that the shooter believed he was shooting at a rival gang. There have been no arrests in her case.
The killing was the 42nd this year in Chicago, which had more than 500 homicides last year.
Ms. Pendleton, an honors student and volleyball player, spoke out against gang violence. In an appearance in a 2008 public service announcement, she said, “So many children out there are in gangs, and it’s your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future.â€
Ms. Pendleton performed last month as a majorette in the King Col! lege Prep High School band at an inauguration party sponsored by Representative Danny K. Davis, Democrat of Illinois, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
The paper said Ms. Pendleton’s wake and funeral would be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, which seats up to 1,000 people.
The administration is stepping up its gun control push next week, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. planning to travel to Philadelphia to meet with law enforcement officials and Congressional Democrats on Monday, before President Obama lays out his plan to confront gun violence in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
