TODAY   |  January 31, 2013

Friend of slain teen: I don’t know how to cope

Just last week, Hadiya Pendleton, 15, experienced the thrill of performing during President Obama’s inauguration. On Tuesday of this week, her life was cut short in a shooting in Chicago. Her friends and family mourn her loss, saying she was “destined for great things.” NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> back now at 8:12 with the tragic death of the 15-year-old girl in chicago that's adding fuel to the national debate over gun violence. nbc with this story. good morning.

>> good morning. she performed at the president's inauguration with the high school drill team and tuesday afternoon she was shot in the back leaving loved ones and authorities to deal with her senseless killing.

>> she was honestly like the happiest person i show. and i don't know how like how to cope with this because it shouldn't have been her. it shouldn't have been any but especially not her.

>> family and friends are mourning the death of 15 15-year-old hadiya pendleton , killed in a southside neighborhood less than a mile from president obama 's chicago home. police say pendleton was huddled with a group of teens to escape the rain when an unidentified gunman jumped a fence anden ran towards the friends and opened fire. as he left the scene, pendleton 's friends realized she had been shot.

>> we were all running and we heard gunshots and she stopped running and said, i think i've been shot. i said, will you please stop joking? she said, no, seriously, i think i've been shot and she fell and time started moving in slow motion .

>> reporter: police say pendleton was hit in the back and she died at the hospital. another teenage boy, 16, is in serious condition. pendleton was a sophomore at a prestigious high school in chicago , honor student and marching band majorette she was in washington for the inauguration as a member of her high school drill team . her parents, relatives and members of the community grappled with the sudden loss.

>> it just hurts to know that another good one is gone.

>> the tears in this family, the pain etched on their face is unacceptable to everybody in chicago . this is sandy hook . this is connecticut. this is newtown, right here. we have to be just as outraged.

>> nothing pains you more than calling a fellow parent, trying to comfort them.

>> reporter: chicago 's mayor, rahm emanuel got emotional when he spoke to hadiya 's mother, cleo.

>> she had dreams and this gangbanger, punk, took that away from cleo and hadiya and in my view, they took it away from the city of chicago .

>> reporter: for a doting dad and devoted little brother, it will be dreams unfulfilled and hearts filled with sorrow as hadiya 's father directed his comments to the gunman.

>> they took the light of my life. she was destined for great things. you stripped that from her.

>> police say no bullet casings were found by investigators at the crime scene leading them to believe hadiya may have been shot with a revolver .r no arrests have been made.