BALTIMORE – The chief of a cultlike group often known as the Zizians that’s linked to 6 killings in three states is due in a Maryland courtroom Tuesday together with two others.
Jack Lasota, 34, of Berkeley, California, was arrested Sunday together with Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Clean, 26, of Sacramento, California. They face costs together with trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in a car.
A bail listening to for the the 2 is scheduled for Tuesday at Allegany District Court docket in Cumberland, Maryland.
The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland close to the Canadian border in January and 5 different homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.
Lasota, Zajko and Clean have been arrested in Frostburg, Maryland, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) west of Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. They have been transported to a county detention heart the place they’re being held, Maryland State Police mentioned in a press release.
“The Maryland State Police is working in coordination with our federal regulation enforcement companions and the Workplace of the State’s Legal professional in Allegany County as this investigation continues,” the state police assertion mentioned.
Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small city about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border.
Officers have provided few particulars of the cross-country investigation. Related Press interviews and a evaluation of court docket data and on-line postings inform the story of how a gaggle of younger, extremely smart pc scientists, most of them of their 20s and 30s, met on-line, shared anarchist beliefs, and have become more and more violent.
Their objectives aren’t clear, however on-line writings included subjects resembling radical veganism, gender id and synthetic intelligence.
On the center of all of it is “Ziz,” the leader of the unusual group whose members are typically referred to as “Zizians” in on-line boards.
LaSota printed a darkish and typically violent weblog underneath the identify Ziz and, in a single part, described her idea that the 2 hemispheres of the mind may maintain separate values and genders and “typically want to kill one another.”
LaSota, who used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender lady, railed towards perceived enemies, together with so-called rationalist teams, which function largely on-line and search to know human cognition by means of motive and information. Some are involved with the potential risks of synthetic intelligence.
LaSota has not responded to emails from the AP in current weeks, and her attorney Daniel McGarrigle declined to touch upon whether or not she is linked to any of the deaths. She’s needed for arrest in two states for lacking court docket appearances.
McGarrigle would solely affirm Monday that he has represented LaSota and would not affirm her arrest or any particulars of the newest case. Makes an attempt to achieve attorneys for Zajko and Clean weren’t profitable.
Pennsylvania state police data describe Daniel Clean as Michelle Zajko’s housemate in Vermont. In January 2023, police investigating the capturing deaths of Zajko’s mother and father detained each LaSota and Clean at a lodge the place Zajko was staying. Clean was not charged. LaSota was charged with obstructing regulation enforcement and disorderly conduct.
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Related Press author Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this story.
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