The apparent leader of a cult-like group linked to multiple killings has been arrested in the US.
Police said Jack LaSota – known as Ziz – was detained on Sunday in Maryland, and faces charges including trespass, possession of a handgun in a vehicle, and obstructing and loitering.
Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, were arrested on similar charges and all three are being held at a local jail.
“The Zizians” have been tied to the killing of US border patrol agent David Maland in January, as well as five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California.
Mr Maland, 44, died in a shootout following a traffic stop near the Canadian border in Vermont.
One of LaSota’s followers, German national Ophelia Bauckholt, was also killed in the incident when a woman she was with, Teresa Youngblut, allegedly opened fire.
LaSota, 34, who uses she/her pronouns and said online she is a transgender woman, is a computer programmer and appears to be the leader of the Zizians.
According to the Associated Press news agency, the group appears to be made up of highly intelligent computer scientists, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.
Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings cover topics from gender identity, radical veganism and artificial intelligence.
LaSota’s blog describes a theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other”.
One of the other killings the group has been linked to is the stabbing of an 82-year-old man in northern California last month.
Prosecutors believe it was to silence him ahead of trial over an alleged 2022 sword attack by disgruntled tenants, in which he lost an eye.
The man charged with the murder, Maximilian Snyder, is said to have a relationship with Teresa Youngblut – the alleged shooter in the death of the border patrol officer.
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In 2023, the parents of Michelle Zajko – the woman arrested alongside LaSota on Sunday – were also found shot dead in their Pennsylvania home.
LaSota was charged with obstructing the investigation and released on bail, and subject to an arrest warrant after failing to show up in court.
Zajko was also questioned over her parents’ killing, but was later released and hasn’t been charged.
A lawyer for LaSota, Daniel McGarrigle, declined to comment when asked whether if his client was connected to any of the deaths.
A bail hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
