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The alleged leader and two members of the “cult-like” Zizian group have been arrested in Maryland after being linked to several deaths in the U.S, the Associated Press reported.
Jack Amadeus Lasota was arrested with Michelle Jacqueline Zajko and Daniel Arthur Blank in Frostburg at around 2:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, Feb. 16, Maryland State Police said in a statement to PEOPLE.
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Lasota, 34, Zajko, 32, and Blank, 26, face multiple charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering, firearm in vehicle, resisting arrest and handgun in person. They are being held at the Allegany County Detention Center.
The arrests come after some group members were allegedly involved in the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in a shootout during a traffic stop in Coventry, Vt., on Jan. 20, the Associated Press reported.
The FBI has said that an alleged fourth group member, Teresa Youngblut, was charged with fatally shooting Maland, 44, The Times reported. Alleged Zizian member Felix Bauckholt, 26, was also killed in that incident last month, according to the outlet.
According to reporting from the AP, the Zizians consist of members of “highly intelligent computer scientists” in their 20s and 30s who met online and support radical veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group has also been linked to five other homicides in Vermont, California and Pennsylvania.
Lasota is believed to be the leader of the Zizians, which is named after her middle name ‘Ziz,’ according to the AP. She reportedly wrote in a blog that she is a transgender woman who has “railed against perceived enemies, including so-called nationalist groups, which operate mostly online.”
On New Year’s Eve in 2022, Zajko was briefly taken into custody and questioned over the deaths of her parents Richard Zajko, 71, and Rita, 69, who were shot and killed at their home in Chester Heights, Penn., The Times reported. Zajko was not arrested or charged, but Lasota was taken into custody for “refusing to cooperate with officers.”
Her lawyer, Daniel McGarrigle, has reportedly told The Times that LaSota was “wholly and unequivocally innocent of the charges filed in this case” and repeated that statement following LaSota’s most recent arrest.
The Zizians were allegedly also linked to the murder of 82-year-old landlord Curtis Lind in Vallejo, Calif., following a rent despite in 2022. Lind was “impaled with a sword” by alleged member Emma Borhanian, who was then shot dead by Lind in self-defense, as ruled by the police, The Times reported.
In January, Lind was found stabbed in the neck and killed before he was set to testify about his attack. Alleged Zizian member Maximilian Snyder, 22, was charged with murder, per The Times.
In connection with Sunday’s arrest, Lasota and Zajko are set for a bail hearing at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Allegany District Court. Authorities noted that their investigation into the incidents is ongoing.