We first noted Zaakir McClendon in August of 2025, when he was finally arrested for the 2022 murder of Nicolas Elizalde and 2023 murder of Nafis Betrand-Hill. I had to use the mugshot of young Mr McClendon, tweeted by Steve Keeley, because the newspaper declined to publish it. The neck tattoo means automatically guilty. It’s a bit hard to read, but it appears to be “NIMB” or “NLMB”, the first of which could possibly be a bad abbreviation for “numbskull.”
We understand: The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t like to publish photos of accused criminals, because to do so might prejudice the cases against them, and such photos might follow an acquitted man many years into the future. But what about when the accused criminal is actually convicted?
At 17, he killed a 14-year-old outside Roxborough High — and then killed again. He faces decades in prison.
Zaakir McClendon, 21, was sentenced Friday for his role in killing Nicolas Elizalde, 14, and Nafis Betrand-Hill, 16.
After all of the scandals involving Catholic priests, I’m always not-so-secretly glad when these sexual abuse scandals involve teachers or Protestants. Though the Lexington Herald-Leader simply tells us that the alleged offender was a youth minister, 