Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old Chicago teen who was gunned down in South Side Chicago’s Harsh Park on Tuesday afternoon after school, appeared in a 2008 anti-gang PSA when she was in the 6th grade.
In the video, titled ‘THINK SMART,’ Hadiya and a classmate share statistics on gang violence and the importance of thinking smart. Other children in the video enact being dead as if shot by a gang member. In unison, the girls inform us that people have been shot for being in the wrong place and the wrong time.
The foreshadowing in that statement, coming from a young girl with her entire life ahead of her, is heartbreaking.
As previously reported by NewsOne, Hadiya performed at the Inauguration of President Obama just over one week ago. The president has not responded to a petition circulating asking that he attend her funeral, but he sent the family his and the First Lady’s condolences through White House spokesperson Jay Carney.
(Photo: AP)
