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Members of Zizians group attend hearing ahead of Maryland trespassing trial
Members of Zizians group attend hearing ahead of Maryland trespassing trial
The Associated Press
January 16, 2026, 1:19 PM
FILE - FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Feb. 5, 2025, where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood. (WRAL-TV via AP, File)
Cumberland, Md. (AP) — Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were in court in Maryland on Friday for a hearing ahead of their trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.
Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group.” Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.
{snip}
The Associated Press
January 16, 2026, 1:19 PM
FILE - FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Feb. 5, 2025, where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood. (WRAL-TV via AP, File)
Cumberland, Md. (AP) — Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were in court in Maryland on Friday for a hearing ahead of their trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.
Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group.” Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.
{snip}