A lady charged within the loss of life of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont is due in federal court docket Tuesday in considered one of a number of prison circumstances linked to a cultlike group referred to as Zizians.
Authorities have mentioned Teresa Youngblut fired the bullet that killed agent David Maland in the course of the January visitors cease. One other agent fired again, wounding Youngblut and killing her companion, Felix Bauckholt, officers have mentioned.
The Zizians are a gaggle of followers of Jack LaSota, a pc scientist who has blogged as “Ziz” on topics together with veganism, gender id and synthetic intelligence. The group principally consists of pc scientists who met on-line, shared anarchist beliefs and have become more and more violent.
Youngblut and Bauckholt had been each affiliated with the group, which authorities have additionally linked to killings in Pennsylvania and California. Youngblut has pleaded not responsible to prices of deliberately utilizing a lethal weapon in the direction of regulation enforcement, and utilizing and discharging a firearm throughout an assault with a lethal weapon.
The Tuesday federal court docket look is a discovery listening to in Burlington. Discovery is a pre-trial continuing during which either side of a case trade proof and data.
Either side declined to remark upfront of the court docket date. The workplace of Steven Barth, who has represented Youngblut, mentioned it had no touch upon the case. Fabienne Boisvert-DeFazio, a spokesperson for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Vermont, mentioned the workplace “doesn’t touch upon ongoing circumstances past the general public document.”
In Vermont, authorities had been watching Youngblut for a number of days after she and Bauckholt checked right into a resort carrying black tactical gear and carrying weapons. Native border patrol brokers additionally had been instructed that Bauckholt was a German citizen with unknown immigration standing. Authorities mentioned Youngblut shot Maland after being pulled over.
The shootout was considered one of a number of violent incidents that has been linked to the Zizians. Members of the group have been tied to the loss of life of considered one of their very own throughout an assault on California landlord Curtis Lind in 2022, Lind’s subsequent killing, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple.
