A 21-year-old Philadelphia man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing two teens in 2022 and 2023 — including firing dozens of bullets at football players at Roxborough High School in a shooting that left a 14-year-old dead.
Zaakir McClendon admitted that when he was 17, he was among six people involved in the gunfire that killed Nicolas Elizalde and seriously wounded four other teens in September 2022.
McClendon also admitted he shot and killed 16-year-old Nafis Betrand-Hill in North Philadelphia seven months later.
McClendon was arrested and charged with the murder of Betrand-Hill in July 2025 after detectives learned he was one of three people who ambushed the teen on the corner of 23rd Street and West Montgomery Avenue the night of April 13, 2023.
A few weeks later he was charged with killing Elizalde after a new DNA test linked him to the crime.
In September 2022, after the Roxborough High shooting, investigators recovered DNA on a fired cartridge casing at the scene, but without a suspect to compare the sample to, they could not determine whose DNA it was.
Then, in October of the following year, McClendon was arrested for illegal gun possession and driving while intoxicated in Overbrook. During that arrest, his DNA was collected and sent to the forensics lab — a process that can take months to complete due to backlogs in the system.
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Finally, in May 2025, investigators collected and ran another swab of McClendon’s DNA, which was a match to the DNA found on the shell casing at the high school shooting, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
Then, the document said, detectives reviewed McClendon’s cell phone records, which showed he was in communication with Zyhied Jones and Saleem Miller, two teens charged with Elizalde’s slaying.
Messages in the phone between McClendon and others showed there was a conflict between one of the shooter’s friends, a girl, and a member of one of the football teams at the scrimmage, investigators said. They opened fire on a member of the team to retaliate, officials said.
Elizalde had nothing to do with the dispute and was caught in the crossfire, police said.
Elizalde’s grandmother, Marge LaRue, said Wednesday that her family yearns for the criminal justice process to finally be over.
“While we prepare a memorial for what would have been Nick’s high school graduation, McClendon prepares for prison,” she said. “Always reminders of the murder. The violence. Our hearts are forever aching for Nicolas.”
McClendon is the third person involved with Elizalde’s killing to plead guilty to the crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
Troy Fletcher and Zyheid Jones pleaded guilty and were sentenced to decades in prison.
Three other men — Dayron Burney-Thorne, Saleem Miller, and Yaseem Bivins — intend to take the case to trial, which is scheduled to begin in June.