One of the state police troopers, named in court records as Brandon Jeffries, approached one of the box trucks and saw a person, later identified as Daniel Blank, sitting in the passenger seat. Jeffries ordered Blank to show their hands, the filing reads, and Blank “advised that he had a learning disability and did not understand what I was saying,” Jeffries wrote.
Inside the other box truck, state police troopers found Zajko and LaSota, according to the charging documents, dressed all in black and wearing gun belts with ammunition.
Jeffries told Zajko and LaSota to exit the truck, a process that was delayed because “they were saying they were being told to (sic) many commands and were not cooperating,” the trooper wrote in the filing. “The female was crying saying not to kill her.”
According to Jeffries’ account, Zajko repeatedly refused to put her hands behind her back and was eventually “taken down to the ground by controlled takedown” before she was arrested. State police found a Sig Sauer handgun in Zajko’s front waistband, the charging documents said.
