New gun charges filed against the leader and 2 followers of cultlike Zizian group tied to killings
The leader and two members of a cultlike group that has been connected to six killings in three states face new gun charges in Maryland.
Authorities have described Jack LaSota, who is also known as Ziz, as the apparent 'leader of an extremist group' called the Zizians who follow her online writings on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence. The group has been linked to killings in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. A cross-country investigation into LaSota and the Zizians broke open in January when one member of the group died and another was arrested after the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in Vermont.
LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement and illegal gun possession last month after a Frostburg, Maryland, man told police that three 'suspicious' people parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there. Their trials had been scheduled to begin in Allegany County District Court on Monday, but their cases were transferred Wednesday to the county's higher-level circuit court after new indictments were handed up.
LaSota now faces nine charges, Zajko faces 14 and Blank faces 12. The new charges, which include carrying concealed and loaded handguns, are misdemeanors. The possible maximum penalties for each charge range from three months of incarceration for trespassing and up to five years for some of the gun charges. Initial court appearances are scheduled for April 8.
Members of the Zizian group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord's subsequent killing in January, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple in between. The Pennsylvania victims were Richard and Rita Zajko, the parents of Michelle Zajko.
A Maryland prosecutor has said two guns Zajko purchased were recovered in connection with the shooting death of Maland, the Border Patrol agent killed in a shootout during a traffic stop in Vermont in January. Teresa Youngblut, who was driving the car and is accused of firing at Maland, has pleaded not guilty to federal firearms charges. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger in the car, also was killed.
Bauckholt and LaSota were living together in North Carolina as recently as this winter, according to their landlord, who also was renting a duplex to Youngblut in the same neighborhood. Youngblut also had applied for a marriage license with Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with killing landlord Curtis Lind in California.
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The Independent
2 days ago
- The Independent
A Border Patrol agent died in 2009. His widow is still fighting a backlogged US program for benefits
When her husband died after a grueling U.S. Border Patrol training program for new agents, Lisa Afolayan applied for the federal benefits promised to families of first responders whose lives are cut short in the line of duty. Sixteen years later, Afolayan and her two daughters haven't seen a penny, and program officials are defending their decisions to deny them compensation. She calls it a nightmare that too many grieving families experience. 'It just makes me so mad that we are having to fight this so hard,' said Afolayan, whose husband, Nate, had been hired to guard the U.S. border with Mexico in southern California. 'It takes a toll emotionally, and I don't think they care. To them, it's just a business. They're just pushing paper.' Afolayan's case is part of a backlog of claims plaguing the fast-growing Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program. Hundreds of families of deceased and disabled officers are waiting years to learn whether they qualify for the life-changing payments, and more are ultimately being denied, an Associated Press analysis of program data found. The program is falling far short of its goal of deciding claims within one year. Nearly 900 have been pending for longer than that, triple the number from five years earlier, in a backlog that includes cases from nearly every state, according to AP's review, which was based on program data through late April. More than 120 of those claims have been in limbo for at least five years, and roughly a dozen have languished for a decade. 'That is just outrageous that the person has to wait that long,' said Charlie Lauer, the program's general counsel in the 1980s. 'Those poor families.' Justice Department officials, who oversee the program, acknowledge the backlog. They say they're managing a surge in claims — which have more than doubled in the last five years — while making complicated decisions about whether cases meet legal criteria. In a statement, they said 'claims involving complex medical and causation issues, voluminous evidence and conflicting medical opinions take longer to determine, as do claims in various stages of appeal.' It acknowledged a few cases "continue through the process over ten years.' Program officials wouldn't comment on Afolayan's case. Federal lawyers are asking an appeals court for a second time to uphold their denials, which blame Nate's heat- and exertion-related death on a genetic condition shared by millions of mostly Black U.S. citizens. Supporters say Lisa Afolayan's resilience in pursuing the claim has been remarkable, and grown in significance as training-related deaths like Nate's have risen. 'Your death must fit in their box, or your family's not going to be taken care of,' said Afolayan, of suburban Dallas. Their daughter, Natalee, was 3 when her father died. She recently completed her first year at the University of Texas, without the help of the higher education benefits the program provides. The officers' benefits program is decades old and has paid billions Congress created the Public Safety Officers' Benefits program in 1976, providing a one-time $50,000 payout as a guarantee for those whose loved ones die in the line of duty. The benefit was later set to adjust with inflation; today it pays $448,575. The program has awarded more than $2.4 billion. Early on, claims were often adjudicated within weeks. But the complexity increased in 1990, when Congress extended the program to some disabled officers. A 1998 law added educational benefits for spouses and children. Since 2020, Congress has passed three laws expanding eligibility — to officers who died after contracting COVID-19, first responders who died or were disabled in rescue and cleanup operations from the September 2001 attacks, and some who die by suicide. Today, the program sees 1,200 claims annually, up from 500 in 2019. The wait time for decisions and rate of denials have risen alongside the caseload. Roughly one of every three death and disability claims were rejected over the last year. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republicans recently introduced legislation to require the program to make determinations within 270 days, expressing outrage over the case of an officer disabled in a mass shooting who's waited years for a ruling. Similar legislation died last year. One group representing families, Concerns of Police Survivors, has expressed no such concerns about the program's management. The Missouri-based nonprofit recently received a $6 million grant to continue its longstanding partnership with the Justice Department to serve deceased officers' relatives — including providing counseling, hosting memorial events and assisting with claims. 'We are very appreciative of the PSOB and their work with survivor benefits,' spokesperson Sara Slone said. 'Not all line-of-duty deaths are the same and therefore processing times will differ.' Nate Afolayan dreamed of serving his adopted country Born in Nigeria, Nate Afolayan moved to California with relatives at age 11. He became a U.S. citizen and graduated from California State University a decade later. Lisa met Nate while they worked together at a juvenile probation office. They talked, went out for lunch and felt sparks. 'The next thing you know, we were married with two kids,' she said. He decided to pursue a career in law enforcement once their second daughter was born. Lisa supported him, though she understood the danger. He spent a year working out while applying for jobs and was thrilled when the Border Patrol declared him medically fit; sent him to Artesia, New Mexico, for training; and swore him in. Nate loved his 10 weeks at the academy, Lisa said, despite needing medical treatment several times — he was shot with pepper spray in the face and became dizzy during a water-based drill. His classmates found him to be a natural leader in elite shape and chose him to speak at graduation, they recalled in interviews with investigators. He prepared a speech with the line, 'We are all warriors that stand up and fight for what's right, just and lawful." But on April 30, 2009 — days before the ceremony — a Border Patrol official called Lisa. Nate, 29, had fainted after his final training run and was hospitalized. It was dusty and 88 degrees in the high desert that afternoon. Agents had to complete the 1.5-mile run in 13 minutes, at an altitude of 3,400 feet. Nate had warned classmates it was too hot to wear their black academy shirts, but they voted to do so anyway, records show. Nate, 29, finished in just over 11 minutes but then struggled to breathe and collapsed. Now Nate was being airlifted to a Lubbock, Texas, hospital for advanced treatment. Lisa booked a last-minute flight, arriving the next day. A doctor told her Nate's organs had shut down and they couldn't save his life. The hospital needed permission to end life-saving efforts. One nurse delivered chest compressions; another held Lisa tightly as she yelled: 'That's it! I can't take it anymore!' Lisa became a single mother. The girls were 3 and 1. Her only comfort, she said, was knowing Nate died living his dream — serving his adopted country. Sickle cell trait was cited in this benefit denial When she first applied for benefits, Lisa included the death certificate that listed heat illness as the cause of Nate's death. The aid could help her family. She'd been studying to become a nurse but had to abandon that plan. She relied on Social Security survivors' benefits and workers' compensation while working at gyms as a trainer or receptionist and dabbling in real estate. The program had paid benefits for a handful of similar training deaths, dating to a Massachusetts officer who suffered heat stroke and dehydration in 1988. But program staff wanted another opinion on Nate's death. They turned to outside forensic pathologist Dr. Stephen Cina. Cina concluded the autopsy overlooked the 'most significant factor': Nate carried sickle cell trait, a condition that's usually benign but has been linked to rare exertion-related deaths in military, sports and law enforcement training. Cina opined that exercising in a hot climate at high altitude triggered a crisis in which Nate's red blood cells became misshapen, depriving his body of oxygen. Cina, who stopped consulting for the benefits program in 2020 after hundreds of case reviews, declined to comment. Nate learned he had the condition, carried by up to 3 million U.S. Black citizens, after a blood test following his second daughter's birth. The former high school basketball player had never experienced any problems. A Border Patrol spokesperson declined to say whether academy leaders knew of the condition, which experts say can be managed with precautions such as staying hydrated, avoiding workouts in extreme temperatures and altitudes, and taking rest breaks. Under the benefit program's rules, Afolayan's death would need to be 'the direct and proximate result' of an injury he suffered on duty to qualify. It couldn't be the result of ordinary physical strain. The program in 2012 rejected the claim, saying the hot, dry, high climate was one factor, but not the most important. It had been more than two years since Lisa Afolayan applied and three since Nate's death. Lisa Afolayan's appeal was not common Most rejected applicants don't exercise their option to appeal to an independent hearing officer, saying they can't afford attorneys or want to get on with their lives. But Lisa Afolayan appealed with help from a border patrol union. A one-day hearing was held in late 2012. The hearing officer denied her claim more than a year later, saying the 'perfect storm' of factors causing the death didn't include a qualifying injury. Lisa and her daughters moved from California to Texas. They visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, where they saw Nate's name. Four years passed without an update on the claim. Lisa learned the union had failed to exercise its final appeal, to the program director, due to an oversight. The union didn't respond to AP emails seeking comment. Then she met Suzie Sawyer, founder and retired executive director of Concerns of Police Survivors. Sawyer had recently helped win a long battle to obtain benefits in the death of another federal agent who'd collapsed during training. 'I said, 'Lisa, this could be the fight of your life, and it could take forever,'" Sawyer recalled. "'Are you willing to do it?' She goes, 'hell yes.'' The two persuaded the program to hear the appeal even though the deadline had passed. They introduced a list of similar claims that had been granted and new evidence: A Tennessee medical examiner concluded the hot, dry environment and altitude were key factors causing Nate's organ-system failure. But the program was unmoved. The acting Bureau of Justice Assistance director upheld the denial in 2020. Such rulings usually aren't public, but Lisa fumed as she learned through contacts about some whose deaths qualified, including a trooper who had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, an intoxicated FBI agent who crashed his car, and another officer with sickle cell trait who died after a training run on a hot day. Today, an appeal is still pending In 2022, Lisa thought she might have finally prevailed when a federal appeals court ordered the program to take another look at her application. A three-judge panel said the program erred by failing to consider whether the heat, humidity and altitude during the run were 'the type of unusual or out-of-the-ordinary climatic conditions that would qualify.' The judges also said it may have been illegal to rely on sickle cell trait for the denial under a federal law prohibiting employers from discrimination on the basis of genetic information. It was great timing: The girls were in high school and could use the monthly benefit of $1,530 to help pay for college. The family's Social Security and workers' compensation benefits would end soon. But the program was in no hurry. Nearly two years passed without a ruling despite inquiries from Afolayan and her lawyer. The Bureau of Justice Assistance director upheld the denial in February 2024, ruling that the climate on that day 15 years earlier wasn't 'unusually adverse.' The decision concluded the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act didn't apply since the program wasn't Afolayan's employer. Arnold & Porter, a Washington law firm now representing Afolayan pro bono, has appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Her attorney John Elwood said the program has gotten bogged down in minutiae while losing sight of the bigger picture: that an officer died during mandatory training. He said government lawyers are fighting him just as hard, 'if not harder,' than on any other case he's handled. Months after filing their briefs, oral arguments haven't been set. 'This has been my life for 16 years,' Lisa Afolayan said. 'Sometimes I just chuckle and keep moving because what else am I going to do?'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Travis Decker manhunt continues in remote Washington mountain trail as police vow to 'not give up'
The manhunt for killer dad Travis Decker continues, Washington State cops said today – despite raising hopes of a swift end to the search last night. Decker has been on the lam for 12 days and is charged with three counts of aggravated murder after the bodies of his three daughters Paityn, nine, Evelyn, eight, and Olivia, five, were found at a woodland campsite on June 2. Chalon County Sheriff Mike Morrison said during the press conference the search will continue with the help of Border Patrol and they will 'not give up' on the search for Decker. He did, however, say 'tactics would change' and warned that all it would take would be 'one mistake' for him to be caught. Former soldier Decker has spent the past two weeks hiding out in the Wenatchee Mountains – a rugged stretch of peaks that stretch for 50 miles across central Washington State. Exclusive Daily Mail photos show exactly how challenging the search has been, with thick forest and soaring peaks of up to 9,500ft dominating the area. Complicating the search is the fact that Decker, a former soldier, knows the area intimately and has ample experience of living rough – once spending two months living off grid in the backwoods. Photos released by the Chalon County Sheriff's Office show searchers battling through the mountainous terrain – with cops pictured searching the snowy flanks of Mount Stuart and being choppered to mountain meadows hundreds of feet above the valley floor. Until Monday, Decker had not been seen since vanishing with the three children following a scheduled custody visit on May 30. Their mother Whitney, 35, called the cops after he failed to return with the girls and could not be reached by phone. Chelan County Sheriff's Office deputies found the girls' bodies about 75 to 100 yards from Decker's truck at a campsite. Police believe the girls died from asphyxiation and reported that their wrists were zip-tied, court documents said Three days later, the children were found suffocated at the remote Rock Island Campground near Leavenworth, with plastic bags over their heads and bound with zip ties. Police said Decker's 2017 GMC truck was also found at the scene and had two bloody handprints on the back gate. Shortly after, a no-bail arrest warrant was issued for Decker, charging him with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping. On Monday, cops revealed they were finally closing in on the alleged killer, saying in a statement that a tip from a hiker had led to a breakthrough. 'Our office recently received a tip from a hiking party who stated they spotted a lone hiker in the Enchantments area who appeared to be ill-prepared for trail and weather conditions and appeared to be avoiding others,' the statement said. 'Tracking teams immediately acted upon the information and spotted a lone, off-trail hiker from a helicopter near Colchuck Lake who ran from sight as the helicopter passed.' An alert was later issued to residents in the Ingalls Creek and the Valley High communities – warning them to lock up their homes and vehicles and be on the lookout for Decker. 'Residents and visitors are urged to secure homes and vehicles, remain vigilant, and report any suspicious activity to 911,' an alert said. 'A heightened law enforcement presence will persist as a precautionary measure.' That alert was lifted Wednesday morning at 11.30am, while the police presence in the area was noticeably diminished when the Daily Mail visited the same day. A plane that cops had been using to scour the area had also departed – traveling to an airport in state capital Olympia, a three-hour flight away. The bearded dad-of-three is a former soldier who joined the Army 2013. He served in Afghanistan before transferring to the Washington National Guard in 2021. He was a full-time member of the Guard until 2023 or 2024, when he switched to part-time. Decker stopped attending mandatory monthly drills a little over a year ago, and the Guard was in the process of a disciplinary discharge. According to ex-wife Whitney, he has been suffering from mental health issues in recent years and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Still, Whitney told police she didn't believe Decker was dangerous and said he loved his daughters. She said the girls had a 'good relationship with Decker and enjoy their time with him,' and noted that he had never failed to return the girls before, according to a police affidavit. Whitney added that when Decker went to pick up the girls for the visit on Friday, he was 'quieter than usual' which was 'out of character' for him. He had also allegedly been talking about getting rid of his dog due to housing and financial struggles. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail in an interview published earlier today, Decker's older brother Thomas said the alleged killer is not the man he knew – and saw just a week before the murders. 'The guy on the wanted poster for murdering my three nieces is not the brother I know,' said Thomas. 'I can't even comprehend what is going on. 'I am in complete shock that he would do something like this. He loves his daughters – at least I thought he did. And Whitney is devastated beyond belief.'
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
Vile LA rioters target agents at their hotels and threaten to 'burn them' as law enforcement faces death threats
In vile posts calling for violence against law enforcement, the hotels where federal agents are staying in Los Angeles have been released online, with one agitator saying 'burn them.' The exact address of where Border Patrol agents stayed in Ranch Cucamonga, California just outside LA was posted on Instagram by a self-proclaimed 'leftists'. 'ICE at Hilton, car filled goggles, tuff ties, and riot shields,' the video said, even though the cars were clearly marked Border Patrol, which is a sister agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Border Patrol has been called in to help ICE as it carried out immigration arrests in Los Angeles last week. Additionally, Border Patrol has always been able to operate within 100 miles of the US-Mexico border on its own. 'Burn them,' posted Instagram users @bobbygee57_ in response to the reel showing the agent's location. 'Got a match,' asked @joseflocas. Another user urged others to damage the tax-payer funded vehicles. Some of the commentators urges violence against Border Patrol agents 'Pop the tires and use spark plugs to break their windows.' Border Patrol agents have since relocated. 'A lot of hotels are compromised,' one agent on the ground told He speculated they might have to sleep inside federal buildings to stay safe. The agency's intelligence team had been notified of the threats against its officers. A second post made unverified claims that ICE agents had been kicked out of a hotel in Pasadena. It shared the new hotel address where the they posters claimed the agents were moving to. The @Stopicenet account shared an image of a Border Patrol truck engulfed in flames. A Free Palestine group shared instructions on how to organize against the cops in LA, saying peaceful protests don't work. 'Riots downtown are great, but what can you accomplish in small numbers, wearing a mask at night, with your phone at home,' posted @solidaritysfl. 'Showing up to a sidewalk protest with protest marshals empowers counterrevolutionary entities (liberals) to drain all the energy and radicalism into Instagram photo ops and call-your-representatives nonsense. That's not going to work. It never has. There are so many other options. If you're all alone, show up to your local Food Not Bombs (in a mask) and let's talk. We are everywhere.' Federal officials have made if clear that violence against agents will not be tolerated. 'Our law enforcement officers are just doing their jobs. Violence and intimidation against federal law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' ICE posted to X. 'Assaulting, harassing and doxing ICE officers and special agents is against the law. The Justice Department will prosecute you for these federal crimes!' Assaulting, harassing and doxing ICE officers and special agents is against the law. @thejusticedept will prosecute you for these federal crimes! — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) June 9, 2025 While most of the protestors in LA have been peaceful, some have turned to violence, including setting cars on fire and throwing items at police during demonstrations The Trump administration has argued that agent safety is one of the reason the president took the unprecedented step of calling in the national guard, despite opposition from both the governor and mayor of LA. While most protestor in LA have been peaceful, some have set cars on fire and hurled items at officers and their vehicles since the clashes started on Friday.
