It took just eight days for this 15-year-old girl to get from the Capitol steps to the morgue

On Jan. 21, Hadiya Pendleton performed at President Obama's inauguration. Yesterday, she was murdered. The weapon: A gun.

CHICAGO — A 15-year-old majorette who performed at some of President Barack Obama's recent inauguration festivities has been shot to death in Chicago.

Police say Hadiya Pendleton was shot in the back Tuesday in a South Side park and died at a city hospital.

Authorities say Hadiya was one of about 12 teenagers sheltering from heavy rain under a canopy when a man jumped a fence, ran toward the group and opened fire. The man fled the scene in a vehicle. No arrests have been made.

Police do not believe Hadiya was the intended target of the shooting. A teenage boy was shot in the leg. Police did not release his name.

Hadiya belonged to the King College Prep High School band, which performed at several inaugural events in Washington, D.C.

More than 1,400 Americans have been lost to gun violence since Newtown. Many of the killings took place on urban street corners like the one where Hadiya lost her life. While some of the proposals before Washinton -- banning high-capacity magazines, for example -- would reduce the number of mass killings, there needs to be a much greater focus on ending the drip-drip-drip of routine gun violence that is drowning cities like Chicago...and Philadelphia. The good news is that it can be done -- look at New York, the nation's largest city, which just went nine days (!) without a single murder. In 2013, you're going to hear a lot more on how Philly can get those kind of results.