CHICAGO (AP) — One of the students in the audience as President Barack Obama talked about gun violence in Chicago this week is a sister of one of the suspects in the slaying of Hadiya (hy-DEE’-uh) Pendleton, the teen who performed at Obama’s inauguration.

Pendleton’s killing about a mile from Obama’s Chicago home on Jan. 29 brought national attention to the city’s gun violence. Police believe the 15-year-old was an innocent victim killed by a young man who thought he was firing at members of a rival gang.

Twenty-year-old Kenneth Williams is one of two men charged in the killing.

His stepfather, Mike Lopez, tells the Chicago Sun-Times that, in an odd coincidence, Williams’ sister was in the audience Friday as Obama spoke of Pendleton’s killing.

Lopez says his stepson is innocent.

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