Maryland State police have arrested two people 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.
Taken into custody were Jack “Ziz” Lasota, 34, and Michelle Zajko, 32. Authorities believe Zajko supplied the guns used in the shooting of Border Patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border 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.
The FBI confirmed that agents were working with Maryland State Police but declined to comment further.
The cases 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 leader of a small group of people that included Michelle Youngblut, 21, who has been charged in connection with Maland’s death. Lasota and Zajko had been interviewed by police 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.”
Maryland court records show Lasota faces charges of trespassing, obstruction and possession of a handgun in a vehicle. Zajko faces charges of trespassing, resisting or interfering with an arrest, obstruction and carrying a handgun. Blank faces charges of trespassing, obstruction and hindering, police said. All three were arrested in a rural area of Maryland near the Pennsylvania border, about 230 miles west of where Zajko’s parents lived.
All three were due in court Tuesday, court records show. Blank was reported missing from Pennsylvania near where Zajko’s parents lived on Dec. 15, 2022, according to Pennsylvania State Police.