The leader and two members of a cultlike group that has been connected to six killings in three states face new gun charges in Maryland.
Authorities have described Jack LaSota, who is also known as Ziz, as the apparent “leader of an extremist group” called the Zizians who follow her online writings on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group has been linked to killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. A cross-country investigation into LaSota and the Zizians broke open in January when one member of the group died and another was arrested after the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.
LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession last month after a Frostburg, Maryland, man told police that three “suspicious” people parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there. Their trials had been scheduled to begin in Allegany County District Court on Monday, but their cases were transferred Wednesday to the county's higher-level circuit court after new indictments were handed up.
