Teen Gunned Down Blocks From Obama's Home, Days After Senate Blocks New Gun Measures

The boy, Cornelius German - or Cornbread, to his family and friends - was in a friend's backyard when a shooting broke out, possibly gang related according to Chicago police, and Cornelius was struck in the back. He had been at his friend's house waiting for his Mother and Father to pick him up.

The boy's mother, Timika Rutledge, had said that Cornelius had originally planned to meet her and his father at a bus stop on the corner of 51^st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, where there is a Walgreens store, but had decided against it because he was afraid of all of the recent shootings that have been happening nearby.

According to the Chicago Tribune report, Rutledge had arrived at the Walgreens and, seeing that her son wasn't there, called him to see where he was. She told the Chicago Tribune that Cornelius had said, "I didn't stand at the bustop because there would be a shooting." When they arrived at the friend's house, they blew their horn for their son to come out, to no avail, when they saw the Chicago Police arrive.

"I went back there and saw my son's jacket and his gym shoes. I just bought those shoes. I saw him laying in the grass in the backyard... I knew it was him in the dark," Rutledge said.

According to the Associated Press, Cornelius's death comes less than three months after another fatal shooting in the area, also of a 15-year old named Hadiya Pendleton, who died after being shot in a park. Gang members who mistook someone in her group for a member of a rival street gang shot her in a park about a mile away from President Obama's residence.

Cornelius, this week's victim of gun violence in Chicago, had wanted to be a football player when he grew up, and had played football for the local Washington Park Redskins.

When the White House was asked to comment, spokesperson Joanna Rosholm said, "The President and First Lady were saddened to learn of yet another young victim of gun violence in their hometown of Chicago. The President remains committed to pressuring Congress to pass common-sense legislation to reduce gun violence."

Late last week, according to CNN, conservative Republicans and a few Democrats from pro-gun states in the U.S. Senate blocked a vote on key proposals in a new round of gun laws that would have expanded background checks - a measure which some polls have shown 90% of Americans support. A broader gun proposal is still under consideration by the Senate, which includes tougher laws on gun trafficking, along with measures to improve school safety.