Police are questioning two men in the murder of an 18-year-old Chicago woman who was killed Friday in a north suburb, officials said Sunday.
Janay McFarlane was shot and killed while leaving a store in North Chicago, hours after her younger sister attended President Barack Obama’s speech on Friday addressing gun violence in Chicago.
McFarlane's mother, Angela Blakely, said McFarlane was not the intended target and that the bullet was intended for a friend she was with. Blakely said McFarlane had asked two male friends to go with her to the store because she didn't feel safe walking alone.
Two men followed McFarlane and her friends out of the store, police said, and one of them fired nine rounds, missing his target and hitting McFarlane in the head.
McFarlane's family said she talked a lot about the death of another slain teen, Hadiya Pendleton, in the days before her sister attended Obama’s Chicago speech at Hyde Park Academy High School.
McFarlane’s younger sister, 14-year-old Destini Warren, who attended the speech, recalled McFarlane saying she was "excited for [Destini]" to see the president.
Warren said the president’s speech "really connected to what was going on" and she "didn’t expect that to happen."
Warren also did not expect the speech to relate to her so personally.
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Blakely said McFarlane was "her little buddy."
"Me and Janay were so close," she said. "It was always 'mommy, go with me' or 'mommy, let's do this.'"
McFarlane was a senior at the World Changers Leadership Academy and was scheduled to graduate in June. She had plans to go to culinary school.
Blakely said she and McFarlane were supposed to go prom dress shopping later this week.
McFarlane is survived by her sister, mother and 3-month-old son, Jayden.
