Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl who performed with her high school band at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball, was killed eight days after the event.  Her shooting was just one of a series of shootings in Chicago, and instantly, people began using the shootings as material for gun control protests.



Recently, however, two known gang members of a Chicago street gang were charged with first degree murder for her death.  Micheail Ward and Kenneth Williams were also charged with attempted murder because the shooting left two other students hurt.

 

Apparently Ward and Williams believed that the group of students they were shooting at was actually a rival gang.  They had been trying to find the rival gang to get revenge – Williams had been shot by them in the summer – and ended up shooting at a crowd, including Pendleton, seeking shelter from the rain in a public park.



The arrests have also triggered more gun control protests because Ward was arrested two years ago for unlawful use of a firearm.  People are now saying that if minimum sentences for this crime were mandatory, he would not have been around to murder Pendleton.  People are petitioning Obama to propose more and more legislation in hopes of curbing gun violence throughout the nation.

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