Ellicott City teen gets 45 years in fatal shooting of man found near high school

A judge on Thursday sentenced a former Howard High School student to life in prison, suspending all but 45 years, in the shooting death of a Baltimore man whose body was found in a vehicle near the school.

Tracee Octavius Parker of Ellicott City, now 19, was arrested on Oct. 15, 2024, with a loaded gun in his backpack at the school. He pleaded guilty in November to charges of first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, according to the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Howard County Circuit Court Judge Stephanie Porter imposed the sentence.

On Oct. 9, 2024, Parker and another teenager fatally shot 26-year-old Kendrick McLellan at approximately 5 p.m. as McLellan sat in his vehicle, the state’s attorney’s office said in a news release Friday. The shooting occurred in the 5500 block of Waterloo Road in Ellicott City.

After the shooting, the release stated, the pair transported McLellan’s body to an office building parking lot in the 8800 block of Centre Park Drive in Columbia, near Howard High.

Howard Police making routine checks of the area found McLellan’s body in the driver’s seat at 2:14 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2024. He had multiple gunshot wounds.

Police said at the time of Parker’s arrest that the suspect “was under supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and on an ankle monitor for a previous incident in another jurisdiction.”

He previously shot someone who became paralyzed, according to his bail hearing. County school officials said that information had not been shared with them.

His codefendant, now 15, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in November. His sentencing hearing will be Thursday.