Zizians crime rampage: How six deaths in three states came to be linked to a cult-like group
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When the alleged leader of a cult-like group that has been linked to six killings across the country was ordered to be held without bail this week, she demanded vegan meals, claiming she could starve and that she was already “in a mild state of delirium” due to lack of food.
Jack LaSota, 34, known online as “Ziz” is the apparent leader and the namesake of a mysterious group of mostly transgender and non-binary young people known as the “Zizians.”
The group, whose members include highly educated young computer scientists obsessed with veganism, animal rights, and theories about the nature of human consciousness, have been linked to homicides in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont – including the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January.
And LaSota, a vegan computer scientist from Berkeley, California, who uses she/her pronouns, has reportedly been seen near multiple crime scenes and has connections to various suspects.
More than two years after the elusive LaSota allegedly faked her own death in 2022, she was arrested on Sunday along with Michelle “Jamie” Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California, on charges of trespassing, obstructing and hindering, and possession of a handgun in the vehicle.
A judge ordered all three held without bail, describing them as dangerous flight risks, despite LaSota asking for pretrial release, saying she was homeless with no means of traveling.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she told the judge.
The trio were arrested after a Frostburg, Maryland resident called police to remove three “suspicious” people off his property after they had parked two box trucks there and asked to camp for a month, according to police documents.
When police responded to the call, they found the three individuals dressed in black with two of them wearing gun belts holding ammunition. A rifle and handgun were found in their vehicle.
Zajko, who was carrying a handgun, refused to put her hands behind her back during the arrest and was forced to the ground, police said.
The arrests are just the latest twist in a bizarre saga that emerged following the deadly shooting at a traffic stop that left a border patrol agent and a car passenger dead, leading to a cross-country investigation that has revealed a series of violent incidents that started years earlier.
Alleged members of the Zizians have since been linked to the death of a woman during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord’s subsequent slaying in January, and the December 2022 deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania.
In 2019, Ziz and three friends attempted a non-violent protest outside a rationalist think tank, but were met with a SWAT team and felony charges. Ziz would later allege that she was abused in police custody.
Content retrieved from: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/zizian-cult-murders-jack-lasota-b2701886.html.
