Is a California cult responsible for murders nationwide including in VT? ‘Zizians’ explained
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Maryland State police have arrested two people linked to what has been described as a transgender vegan anti-artificial intelligence murder cult in connection with a string of homicides nationally, including several deaths in California, two in Pennsylvania, and the shooting of a U.S. border patrol agent in Vermont earlier this year.
Jack “Ziz” Lasota, 34, and Michelle Zajko, 32, were taken into custody. Authorities believe Zajko supplied the guns used in the shooting of Border Patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border on Jan. 20. Maryland State Police confirmed the arrests Monday but declined to comment further.
A third person, Daniel Blank, 26, was arrested alongside Zajko and Lasota; his connection was not immediately clear. Maryland authorities did not immediately disclose the circumstances under which the three were arrested.
“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,” a spokesperson for the Maryland State Police said in a statement.
LaSota is the alleged leader of the Zizians cult, a Bay Area-based group that advocates for veganism and is concerned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. Many in the Zizians cult had previously worked at NASA and Google, the San Franciso Chronicle reported.
Here’s what to know about the Zizians, the alleged murders, and Lasota.
The criminal cases around the Zizians have drawn worldwide attention, in part because some of the people involved were transgender and many were vegan, an unusual combination of circumstances, experts said.
Zajko is a suspect in the shooting deaths of her parents in Pennsylvania in late 2023. Authorities believe Lasota is the leader of a small group of people that included Michelle Youngblut, 21, who was charged in connection with Maland’s death. Police had interviewed Lasota and Zajko in connection with her parents’ deaths, but they were not arrested or charged.
“There’s significant evidence that Jack Lasota is the person who is the idea engine for these people,” said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow and policy adviser at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. “There are certainly suspicions that need to be investigated.”
A man Youngblut grew up with and got a license to marry, Max Snyder, 22, is jailed in California on charges he in January ambushed and mortally stabbed a landlord who owned the property where Lasota and others lived several years ago.
Content retrieved from: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/crime/2025/02/19/who-are-zizians-who-is-jack-ziz-lasota-vegan-death-cult-vermont-border-patrol-agent/79186322007/.
