Chicago Police Department

Kenneth Williams (left) and Michael Ward (right) were charged Monday in the shooting death of Hadiya Pendleton

Two suspects have been charged in last month’s shooting death of a 15-year-old Chicago girl who performed at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, police announced Monday night.

Michael Ward, 18, and Kenneth Williams, 20, each face one count of first-degree murder for the death of Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot two weeks ago in a park near her school, just days after returning from Washington, D.C., officials said. The two also face attempted first degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm for the attack that left two other teens wounded.

Ward was the shooter and confessed to police that Hadiya was not the intended target, police said. The shooting was allegedly meant to be a retaliation for Williams, who was shot last year.

Reached by phone Monday evening, Hadiya’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley, said she was “ecstatic” about the arrests and urged for the young  men to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“Look at what they've done to me and my family. We put so much work into raising my daughter. We had hopes. My son no longer has a big sister. They deserve to feel something that is remotely comparable,” Cowley told NBC News. “But my daughter is dead and even if they are rotting in jail, they will still be alive.”  

Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy called Hadiya’s family “rocks in supporting us in this investigation.” During the press conference he said he hopes the high-profile murder will lead to meaningful change in the city’s gun law.

He also stressed that it wasn't tips from the community that led to the arrests, but rather relentless detective work.

“This was one of the most methodical, practical investigations that I can remember,” said McCarthy.

Since her death, Hadiya has become one of the faces of the Obama administration’s efforts to reform the nation’s gun laws. First Lady Michelle Obama attended the teenager’s funeral Saturday, and Cowley has been invited to attended Tuesday’s State of the Union.

“My baby deserves a revolution and I pray that what happened her to her will have an impact,” she said.

Police arrested two suspects Sunday morning who are being questioned in the death of slain teen Hadiya Pendleton, officials confirmed with NBC.

The suspects were pulled over early this morning around 67th Street and South Chicago Avenue after detectives canvassed the area around Harsh Park, Chicago police said.

Sources close to the investigation said no charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing.

The new information comes one day after First Lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral for the 15-year-old, whose death has put Chicago gun violence in the spotlight.

It also follows the announcement of President Obama's plans to address gun violence in the city. 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the teens mother Cleopatra Pendleton this morning to tell her the news, sources told NBC Chicago.

Reward leading to her killer last stood at $40,000.

Michelle Obama will travel to Chicago on Saturday and attend the funeral of a 15-year-old girl gunned down last week in Chicago, the White House confirmed Friday.

The first lady was not expected to speak, sources told NBC Chicago.

Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will also make the trip from Washington, D.C., to attend the service for Hadiya Pendleton at the Calahan Funeral Home on the 7000 block of South Halsted Street.

"That's a step in the right direction," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Thursday. "Their coming give us a sense that somebody at the highest levels of government cares, and that is a big deal."

Pendleton was killed last Tuesday at Kenwood Park on the city's South Side days after she performed at some of President Barack Obama's recent inauguration festivities.

She was shot to death blocks from her school and about a mile from the president's and first lady's Chicago home.

"After all, this is in her neighborhood. This is less than a mile from the First Lady's house, and her children must walk these same streets, and so I'm sure that Michelle is acutely sensitive to just how close this is to her own family," Jackson said.

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Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he believes Michelle Obama's visit "is rightfully bringing attention to the problems that every urban center in this country is experiencing every single day."

The reward leading to Pendleton's killer stands at $40,000.

A petition was started asking that Obama attend the funeral. Unconfirmed reports earlier this week said Michelle Obama had considered attending.

The Pendleton family's pastor confirmed the president called Hadiya's parents to offer his sympathies.

"We thank him for that, and if he does come, that's fine," Pastor Courtney Maxwell said. "If he doesn't, we know he sends his love."

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn also will attend the funeral, set for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, at 5141 S. State St.

Related:

Chicago cops: Tips about Hadiya Pendleton's killer pouring in

Hadiya Pendleton's family: 'Just a matter of time' before killer is caught

Family of slain Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton preparing for her funeral

A fire-spitting effect was removed from the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of “Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg" on Monday after a stilt walker was seriously burned during a dress rehearsal.

Despite his flameproof costume and mask, fire-blowing actor Wesley Daniel suffered second-degree burns to his face and throat while performing in front of an audience.

Daniel staggered away and collapsed just off stage. A stage manager with a fire extinguisher then put out spots of flame onstage.

"I don't think he closed his mouth quick enough, so the fire, the stuff in his mouth, came on his clothes and so did the fire, and it also dribbled all over the floor so we saw a line of fire across the stage," said audience member Karen Avgush. "And then I think he was trying to quickly get off the stage, and I think he was moving too quickly with everybody in the way, so he fell really hard off the stilts."

First responders responded to the theater, at 20. N. Wacker Dr., shortly before 5 p.m. and took the actor to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on advanced life support, officials said.

"It was really scary and nerve-wracking, and we were just all really nervous for what was going to happen to him," said child actor Mia Rehwaldt, who was on stage with Daniel when he caught fire.

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Opera spokesperson Magda Krance said the 24-year-old Daniel suffered blistering around his mouth but said his injury didn't appear to be serious.

Fire officials later said Daniel had second degree burns.

He was being treated at Loyola Hospital on Monday night.

The effect had been approved by the Chicago Fire Department, Krance said. 

Last week, another performer had experienced a lesser mishap attempting the same trick, part of a festival scene on the crowded Lyric stage.

Several hundred people made up the audience. The mishap occurred about 30 minutes prior to the end of the five-and-a-half-hour performance.

The incident halted the performance for about 45 minutes before it resumed. Still, the audience missed out on the last few minutes of the show because of a union-mandated break for the 81-member orchestra.

CHICAGO - Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and relatives of victims of fatal shootings in Chicago urged President Barack Obama on Saturday to come back to his hometown and address the gun violence plaguing the city.

Before a march on the city's South Side, Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said America's third most populous city needed more help than Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police superintendent Garry McCarthy could offer.

"When the president shows up, it shows ultimate national seriousness," said Jackson, a Chicago resident. He also called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help patrol the streets of Chicago.

Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. As of Thursday, there were 42 homicides and 157 shootings so far this year, according to Chicago police.

The issue received new urgency with the killing this week of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honors student who performed with her high school band at Obama's inauguration on January 21.

News of her death near Obama's old home in the Kenwood neighborhood came before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on gun control on Wednesday. Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, has said the Obamas are praying for Pendleton's family.

Anita Crittenden, who lost a nephew to gun violence last year, said Obama, by coming to Chicago, would "get the leaders to think and step up and make some changes."

A petition posted on the White House's "We the People" website calls for Obama and his family to attend Pendleton's funeral on February 9. The petition must have at least 100,000 signatures to receive an official response from the White House.

Jackson led nearly 150 people on a march from Martin Luther King Jr. College Prep High School, where Pendleton was a student, to the park where she died a few blocks away.

"My greatest fear about the gun violence in Chicago is that we're adjusting to it," he said.

Police said Pendleton was shot to death on Tuesday as she and her friends were shielding themselves from rain under a canopy in the park. Police have called it a case of mistaken identity and are offering a $40,000 award for information leading to her killer.

Emanuel announced plans on Thursday to take 200 police officers now serving in administrative positions and deploy them on the streets.

"Hadiya wanted to make a difference in the world," said Shatira Wilks, a spokeswoman for the family, and cousin of Cleopatra Cowley, Pendleton's mother. "It's unfortunate that it would be like this, but we still hope that this can make a difference."

Not everyone participating in the march agreed that Obama should come home. Matthew McGill said the president should address the violence issue, but need not single out Chicago, "because what you see in Chicago happens in other cities as well." 

Cook County Sheriff via AP

This photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Steven L. Robbins, a convicted murderer police in Indiana. He was mistakenly released from custody in Chicago on Wednesday and rearrested late Friday.

CHICAGO -- A convicted murderer from Indiana who was mistakenly released following a Chicago court appearance was back in custody Saturday after authorities tracked him down about 60 miles away.

Steven L. Robbins, 44, was rearrested late Friday night without incident in Kankakee, south of Chicago in northeastern Illinois, the Cook County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. Although the details of his capture weren't immediately released, officials said they used various leads and interviews with friends and family members at police headquarters to locate him.

The reason Robbins was able to escape in the first place, Illinois officials acknowledged, was because they lost paperwork directing them to return him to Indiana.

Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana and was escorted by Cook County sheriff's deputies to Chicago this week for a court appearance in a separate case involving drug and armed violence charges — a case that had actually been dismissed in 2007.

After appearing before two Cook County Circuit Court judges, Robbins was taken to a jail on Chicago's South Side. He was released hours later, instead of being sent back to Indiana to continue his murder sentence. The public was not alerted that he was on the loose for about 24 hours.

'We made mistakes'
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday took responsibility for Robbins' release, saying a document showing he should be returned to Indiana disappeared while his deputies were transporting the prisoner, sometime between a Tuesday court appearance and his return to jail after a second court appearance Wednesday. Robbins was released Wednesday evening.

"We're not ducking the fact we dropped the ball. We made mistakes," Dart said. "The public deserves much more. We're going to find out what went wrong here."

But Dart and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, both prominent local Democrats, exchanged tense words about who should accept responsibility for having Robbins brought to Chicago from Indiana.

Alvarez said her office had told Dart's office that it didn't need to bring Robbins from Indiana because the drug and armed violence case was closed. But Dart's office proceeded anyway, she said, because of confusion over the outcome of the case and because Robbins demanded to stand trial.

"The Cook County Sherriff's Police, despite the fact that the assistant state's attorney told them that they didn't have to bring him back, they thought it would be better if they did bring him back to get this all cleared up because the guy keeps writing letters demanding trial," Alvarez told reporters.

But Dart said his office sought — and was granted — permission from the state attorney's office to bring Robbins to Chicago. The sheriff showed The Associated Press a copy of the extradition request from September signed by one of Alvarez's prosecutors.

"We can't just go to any state in the country and say 'You know what? We're going to take someone out of your prison and bring him here.' ... They're the ones that signed off on allowing us to go get this guy," Dart said.

Dart also said that because of an antiquated computer system, his office thought an arrest warrant for Robbins in the case was still active, which is why it asked the state attorney's office for permission to extradite Robbins.

"It's our fault but we move 100,000 people a day and it's all done with paper," Dart said.

Before Robbins was captured, federal and local law enforcement officers knocked on doors in Illinois and Indiana on Friday, including those of his friends and relatives, the sheriff's office said. The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his apprehension.

Robbins, a Gary, Ind., native, was serving a sentence for murder and weapons convictions out of Marion County in Indiana.

Related:

Killer hunted after being mistakenly released from jail