Michelle Obama attends funeral service of Chicago teenager who died in gang shooting (VIDEO)
First lady Michelle Obama speaks during a luncheon in the East Room of the White House, on July 13, 2012 in Washington, DC. On Thursday, Obama will visit the Sikh temple where a shooting left 6 people dead earlier this month.
US First Lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teenager and band majorette who was shot dead in a gang-related shooting, only days after she performed at President Obama's January inaguration.
The First Lady met with Pendleton's grieving family prior to the service, and walked with Pendleton's mother to view the open casket, writes the Telegraph.
The Chicago Tribune wrote that Hadiya's mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, gave a moving address to the hundreds who had gathered to honor her daughter, observing that she was "not worried about her soul."
The New York Daily News reported that Cowley-Pendleton also said in the address that "no mother, no father, should ever have to experience this."
Young Pendleton has become a symbol of the violence wrecked in the US inner city by gang violence, after the promising teenager's life was cut shot in a park, where she had come to hang out with friends.
It is believed that the young woman was shot in a tragic case of missing identity.