BALTIMORE – The leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians that is linked to six killings in three states is due in a Maryland courtroom Tuesday along with two others.
Jack Lasota, 34, of Berkeley, California, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California. They face charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
A bail hearing for the the two is scheduled for Tuesday at Allegany District Court in Cumberland, Maryland.
The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and California.
Lasota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in Frostburg, Maryland, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) west of Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. They were transported to a county detention center where they are being held, Maryland State Police said in a statement.
“The Maryland State Police is working in coordination with our federal law enforcement partners and the Office of the State’s Attorney in Allegany County as this investigation continues,” the state police statement said.
Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border.
Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation. Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.
Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings included topics such as radical veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
At the middle of it all is “Ziz,” the leader of the strange group whose members are sometimes called “Zizians” in online forums.
LaSota published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and, in one section, described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.”
LaSota, who used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman, railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
LaSota has not responded to emails from the AP in recent weeks, and her attorney Daniel McGarrigle declined to comment on whether she is connected to any of the deaths. She’s wanted for arrest in two states for missing court appearances.
McGarrigle would only confirm Monday that he has represented LaSota and wouldn’t confirm her arrest or any details of the latest case. Attempts to reach attorneys for Zajko and Blank were not successful.
Pennsylvania state police records describe Daniel Blank as Michelle Zajko’s housemate in Vermont. In January 2023, police investigating the shooting deaths of Zajko’s parents detained both LaSota and Blank at a hotel where Zajko was staying. Blank was not charged. LaSota was charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct.
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Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this story.
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