On January 20, , following a traffic stop, United States Border Patrol agent David Maland was killed in a shootout with Teresa Youngblut, who was wounded, and German national Ophelia Bauckholt, who also died in the shootout.
The pair were traveling south on Interstate 91 in Coventry in Northern Vermont when they were pulled over as part of a traffic stop. The alleged assailants were reportedly members of a Bay Area group known as the "Zizians". The Zizians are said to emphasize animal rights and veganism and to advocate "timeless decision theory".
They are said to claim that human can hold separate personalities by activating different hemispheres of their brain. In , LaSota was arrested alongside three other members of the movement for protesting at a CFAR event in Occidental ; the members filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Sonoma County which was later dismissed. A hotel employee in Lyndonville, Vermont , reportedly contacted law enforcement about the duo after seeing Youngblut carrying "an apparent firearm in an exposed carry holster".
Both wore "all-black, tactical style clothing with protective equipment". They only claimed that they were in Vermont to purchase real estate. The following day, hours before the shootout, the pair was seen at a Walmart with Bauckholt buying aluminum foil. Following the shooting, authorities found ammunition, a helmet, night vision monoculars, a tactical belt with a holster, a pair of walkie-talkies , a magazine loaded with cartridges, and shooting range targets in their car.
Smartphones wrapped in aluminum foil were also found, apparently to prevent their phones from being tracked. At approximately p. Both Maland and Bauckholt were pronounced dead while the second suspect was taken to a hospital and was later arrested. The registered owner of the car, Ophelia Bauckholt born Felix Bauckholt , [ 5 ] was a German citizen on a current visa working as a quantitative trader for Tower Research Capital in New York since October Bauckholt was born and raised in Freiburg im Breisgau , she attended the Goethe-Gymnasium in the city where she was praised as having "remarkable knowledge" in mathematics.
