Two years after a 16-year-old was killed, police have made another arrest
Nafis Betrand-Hill was shot and killed in April 2023. Now more than two years later, police have charged Zaakir McClendon with murder.
More than two years after a 16-year-old was shot and killed near his mother’s home, police have arrested another young man they believe fired the bullets that ended his life.
Zaakir McClendon, 20, was taken into custody Wednesday in Northeast Philadelphia and charged with murder, conspiracy, and related crimes for his alleged role in the April 2023 killing of Nafis Betrand-Hill.
Just before 9 p.m. on April 13, 2023, Betrand-Hill was outside with friends near a preschool at 23rd Street and West Montgomery Avenue when police said a gray Kia pulled up and two young men jumped out and started shooting. The teen, who lived just half a block away, was struck multiple times and killed.
McClendon is the third person to be charged in the teen’s death. Ranief Allen, now 20, was arrested weeks after the shooting and, earlier this year, was convicted by a judge of third-degree murder and related crimes for his role in the killing. He is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
» READ MORE: Twenty-four children were killed in shootings in 2023 in Philadelphia. These are their stories.
Aysir Clarke, a rapper known as Lil Bape, was arrested alongside Allen, but he was acquitted at a trial this spring.
Police have said they believe the shooting could have been linked to an ongoing feud between teens in North Philadelphia.
But Betrand-Hill’s family said the trials did not point to any specific issue or motive, leaving them to continue to agonize over why their child was killed.
“He is not resting until everybody is caught for his murder,” Betrand-Hill’s stepmother, Ashante Betrand, said Thursday. “It seems like they just did it for nothing. Still today, we don’t have an explanation.”
Betrand-Hill was a sophomore at Sayre High School, the oldest of four brothers and three sisters. He split time between his mother’s home in North Philly, and his father and stepmother’s home in West Philadelphia, she said. The families gathered at the start of the year to celebrate what would have been his 18th birthday.
Known as “Fisso” or “Bo” by his loved ones, he was a goofy child who loved making music with his friends, watching movies with his siblings, and eating his mom’s home-cooked meals, his family said. He was very close with his father, Betrand said, and the two loved going shopping for the latest trendy sneakers together.
At the time of his death, he was attending barber school on the weekends.
“We still feel the same way we felt that first day — broken, hurt, confused on why," Betrand said in an interview. “We’re still mourning and missing a child. The tears have not stopped yet. His siblings have not regrouped.”
“His family,” she said, “is broken.”
Betrand said the family remains in Philadelphia, in part, to stay close to where he is buried, so they can visit his grave on weekends, holidays, and the days they miss him most.
Really, she said, that is every day.
Betrand said a detective called her family Wednesday with the news of the third arrest.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said investigators believe McClendon was one of the two gunmen who ambushed the teen.
Police made contact with McClendon during a car stop in May that produced new information in the case. he said. During that stop, he said, McClendon was riding with Clarke. Detectives also gathered additional forensic evidence that tied McClendon to the shooting, he said.
The affidavit for probable cause for the initial arrests said police located the shooters’ getaway car, which had been reported stolen from Drexel Hill the week before, a few hours after the killing. Inside, police found a Glock 27 handgun and multiple fingerprints.