A Multnomah County jury convicted Noureddine Dib after prosecutors said he shot another parent outside the Islamic School of Portland.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland-area father was sentenced May 7 to 12 years in prison for shooting another parent outside the Islamic School of Portland during pickup in 2024, prosecutors said.

Noureddine Dib, 43, was convicted in April after a trial over the shooting of Michael Zakarneh, another father who had arrived at the Southwest Portland school to pick up his children. Prosecutors said the case turned on what happened in a small parking lot minutes before students were due outside and on video that showed Zakarneh trying to get away after the first shot.

The sentence closed the main trial stage of a case that began Oct. 17, 2024, with a conflict between two parents who already had tense encounters around school traffic. Prosecutors said Dib and Zakarneh had clashed before over driving in the school pickup and drop-off area. Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer later described the lot as small and connected to a narrow residential street, a place where a crowded pickup line could quickly become stressful. But Palmer said the location made the gunfire more serious, not less. “I think the sentence is appropriate for the circumstances,” Palmer said after sentencing.

Authorities said both men arrived that afternoon to collect their children. The two spoke in or near the parking lot before Dib pulled a gun and shot Zakarneh in the abdomen. Prosecutors said Zakarneh fled and Dib kept pursuing him, firing toward him at least once more. Zakarneh then jumped down a flight of stairs toward the school and shattered bones in his right ankle. He escaped to a nearby gas station, where bystanders helped him and called 911. Police arrested Dib without incident after the shooting. Officials have not said that any child was struck by gunfire.

At trial, Dib’s lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense after prior encounters with Zakarneh. They described Zakarneh as the aggressor and said Dib had been mocked and harassed. Prosecutors rejected that account and pointed to surveillance video that they said showed Zakarneh running away when Dib continued firing. The state also played audio from a 911 call in which Dib said he was peaceful and said Zakarneh had been harassing him. Prosecutors argued that the call did not include a clear claim that Dib feared for his life at the moment he fired. The jury found Dib guilty after about 12 hours of deliberation. The convictions included attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, discharging a firearm and reckless endangerment. The verdict followed testimony about earlier disputes between the men, including a prior complaint about driving during school pickup. Prosecutors said the two fathers attended the same mosque in Portland and had met only about a month before the shooting. The defense said the relationship between the men had already become hostile before the day gunfire broke out.

Palmer and Deputy District Attorney Stephany Mgbadigha prosecuted the case for the state. Mgbadigha told jurors in opening statements that Dib brought a loaded firearm to his children’s school. Palmer said after the verdict that his thoughts remained with Zakarneh and his family, who had lived with fear and anxiety since the shooting. He said the jury reached “the one and only just and true verdict” after considering the evidence. The district attorney’s office also thanked Portland police Detectives Sara Clark and Laurent Bonczijk for their work on the investigation.

The shooting added a criminal case to a setting normally marked by routine family traffic, waiting cars and children leaving class. Prosecutors said the school was minutes from dismissal when the confrontation turned violent. Zakarneh’s family later described him as social, kind and devoted to making people laugh. His daughter Amineh Zakarneh said in earlier local interviews that her father had gone to pick up her siblings when he was shot. She said the incident shook a community that viewed the mosque and school as places of belonging and safety. The sentence was longer than the 7.5-year minimum that prosecutors cited. In seeking a longer prison term, the state pointed to the abdomen wound, the pursuit across school property, the additional shot and the ankle injury Zakarneh suffered while trying to escape. Palmer said the sentence addressed not only the injury to Zakarneh but the fact that the shooting happened at a school. He called a school “the last place an attempted murder should ever take place.”

For now, Dib faces the prison term imposed by the court. The public record reviewed for this story did not list a new hearing after sentencing. Any post-trial motions or appeal would move through the court separately.

Author note: Last updated May 17, 2026.