{"id":284476,"date":"2026-09-12T12:42:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284476\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T12:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T12:42:30","slug":"gunman-in-roxborough-high-school-ambush-sentenced-for-2-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/284476\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunman in Roxborough High School ambush sentenced for 2 murders"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The final suspect charged in connection with the deadly 2022 shooting outside Roxborough High School was sentenced Friday in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Zaakir McClendon<\/a> was one of five gunmen who opened fire outside the school following a football scrimmage, killing 14-year-old Nicholas Elizalde and wounding four others.<\/p>\n

According to investigators, Elizalde was an innocent bystander and not the intended target of the shooting.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured:<\/p>\n

Pictured: A portrait of Nicolas Elizalde<\/p>\n

READ MORE | 6th arrest made in fatal ambush shooting outside Roxborough High School that left 14-year-old dead<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities said McClendon evaded capture for nearly three years after the shooting. During that time, prosecutors said he fatally shot 16-year-old Nafis Betrand Hill<\/a> on the 2300 block of Montgomery Avenue in April 2023.<\/p>\n

McClendon pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to serve at least 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In court, McClendon briefly apologized, acknowledging that he had been a menace to society and saying he believed he could change.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO | Philadelphia man pleads guilty to roles in separate fatal shootings that killed 2 teens<\/a><\/p>\n

“He’s a 21-year-old kid, grew up in a tough environment. Somebody who, I think, did the best to show remorse that he could,” defense attorney Doug Dolman said.<\/p>\n

Outside the courtroom, members of the Elizalde family expressed frustration that McClendon did not look at them while they delivered victim impact statements.<\/p>\n

“It made me feel disrespected for Nicholas,” said his grandmother, Margaret LaRue. “He’s saying he’s sorry, but who is he saying it to?”<\/p>\n

Family members of Betrand Hill did not publicly comment after the sentencing.<\/p>\n

In her statement, Elizalde’s mom said that society needs to invest in education, the arts, and work to prevent shootings like this. She and her family went to the soon-to-be-shuttered Academy of Natural Sciences to honor his memory.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The final suspect charged in connection with the deadly 2022 shooting outside Roxborough High School…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[118611,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-284476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-118611","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}