Zak Failla

Assistant Managing Editor

[email protected]

FOLLOW ON

Facebook Twitter Linkedin Instagram

Equal parts Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson and Vicki Vale, Zak! has traveled from coast-to-coast covering small and big town community news in both in print and online for nearly a decade since his graduation from the award-winning Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in 2010.

Before settling into the Hudson Valley, Zak! previously spent time in the New York Daily News newsroom and worked for hyperlocal digital news outlets on Long Island. He wrote sports for The Ithacan and The Ithaca Journal before taking his talents to the Pacific Northwest, where he served as the sports editor at the Shoshone News-Press until heading back east to work with Daily Voice.

Zak Failla's Contributions

Fredericksburg, VA
Police & Fire
Devices Seized In Raid Lead To Fresh Child Porn Charges For Spotsylvania Man, Sheriff Says Devices Seized In Raid Lead To Fresh Child Porn Charges For Spotsylvania Man, Sheriff Says
Devices Seized In Raid Lead To Fresh Child Porn Charges For Spotsylvania Man, Sheriff Says The evidence kept coming. Weeks after a Virginia man was arrested in a child exploitation investigation, detectives say a closer look at the electronic devices they seized uncovered enough additional evidence to file five more felony charges. Connor Faitak, 32, was first taken into custody on June 16 after detectives with the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office searched his home in the 300 block of Pool Drive as part of a child exploitation investigation. Investigators walked away with multiple electronic devices and, during a separate search the same day, recovered what authorities described as…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Alexandria, VA
News
ISIS Convict's Final Phone Call Before Deadly ODU Terror Attack Was To Gun Seller, Feds Say ISIS Convict's Final Phone Call Before Deadly ODU Terror Attack Was To Gun Seller, Feds Say
ISIS Convict's Final Phone Call Before Deadly ODU Terror Attack Was To Gun Seller, Feds Say Minutes before Mohamed Bailor Jalloh walked into an Army ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University and carried out a deadly terrorist attack, prosecutors say he made one last phone call. It wasn't to a family member. It was to the Virginia man who had sold him the gun. Newly filed federal court records reveal Kenya Mechell Chapman, 32, of Smithfield, sold the Glock pistol to Jalloh the night before the March 12 shooting in Norfolk, then spoke with him again just minutes before the attack that killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah and wounded two other Army personnel. The revelations surfaced o…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Alexandria, VA
Police & Fire
Driver Charged Months After 62-Year-Old Woman Was Killed In Alexandria Crosswalk: Police Driver Charged Months After 62-Year-Old Woman Was Killed In Alexandria Crosswalk: Police
Driver Charged Months After 62-Year-Old Woman Was Killed In Alexandria Crosswalk: Police It took nearly three months, but a Virginia grand jury has now decided the crash was criminal. A Lorton man has been indicted in connection with a fatal pedestrian crash that claimed the life of a 62-year-old woman in Alexandria earlier this year. Tekaligne Shirko, 46, surrendered Friday, July 17, after an Alexandria grand jury returned an indictment charging him with involuntary manslaughter and failure to yield to a pedestrian causing death, according to Alexandria Police. The charges stem from a collision shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 20, at the intersection of North Saint A…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Fairfax, VA
Traffic
Virginia Drivers Hit Double Trouble As Crashes Snarl Beltway In Fairfax Virginia Drivers Hit Double Trouble As Crashes Snarl Beltway In Fairfax
Virginia Drivers Hit Double Trouble As Crashes Snarl Beltway In Fairfax Just when one backup wasn't enough, another crash made the afternoon commute even worse. Virginia drivers heading through Fairfax County on Friday, July 17, found themselves crawling along the Capital Beltway after two separate crashes on Interstate 495 South closed multiple lanes and stacked traffic for miles. The biggest backup developed near mile marker 49.1, where a crash involving a tractor-trailer shut down the left and left-center lanes. As of 4:53 p.m., traffic was backed up for approximately three miles, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation, which urged motorists…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
College Park, MD
Police & Fire
$60K Reward Back In Play As FBI, Maryland State Police Hunt Unsolved Road Rage Killers $60K Reward Back In Play As FBI, Maryland State Police Hunt Unsolved Road Rage Killers
$60K Reward Back In Play As FBI, Maryland State Police Hunt Unsolved Road Rage Killers Four years later, someone still knows who pulled the trigger. Maryland State Police and the FBI are renewing their plea for information in two unsolved road rage killings that left a father of six and another driver dead in separate 2022 shootings, reminding the public that $60,000 in reward money is still available. The renewed push came on Friday, July 17, when the FBI Baltimore Field Office spotlighted the unsolved killings of Delonte Hicks in Prince George's County and Charles Harrison Marks IV in Howard County, both of whom were fatally shot while behind the wheel. Hicks, 29, of Washi…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Gaithersburg, MD
Police & Fire
Maryland Trash Truck Erupts In Flames At Busy Gaithersburg Intersection (PHOTOS) Maryland Trash Truck Erupts In Flames At Busy Gaithersburg Intersection (PHOTOS)
Maryland Trash Truck Erupts In Flames At Busy Gaithersburg Intersection (Photos) It went from garbage pickup to a five-alarm-looking mess in a hurry. A Maryland trash truck erupted in flames Friday afternoon, sending thick black smoke billowing over a busy Gaithersburg intersection before firefighters brought the blaze under control. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service crews were dispatched shortly after 2:15 p.m. Friday, July 17, to Snouffer School Road and Sweet Autumn Drive after reports of a large vehicle fire. When firefighters arrived, they found an empty Leach trash truck with its engine compartment engulfed in flames. The driver had already made it out s…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Silver Spring, MD
Police & Fire
Silver Spring Man 'Young Wiggi' Used Stolen Identities To Hide Cocaine Operation, Police Say Silver Spring Man 'Young Wiggi' Used Stolen Identities To Hide Cocaine Operation, Police Say
Silver Spring Man 'Young Wiggi' Used Stolen Identities To Hide Cocaine Operation, Police Say The drugs weren't the only thing police say he was hiding. A Maryland man accused of trafficking kilos of cocaine was also using stolen identities to conceal his operation, according to investigators, who say the scheme unraveled during a sweeping multi-agency investigation in Montgomery County. Wildy Cherubin, 38, of Silver Spring, who also goes by the nickname "Young Weegi," was arrested Wednesday, July 8, following an investigation by the Montgomery County Police Department's Special Investigations Division and the DEA. Detectives say Cherubin wasn't just distributing significant quanti…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Prince Frederick, MD
Police & Fire
Bizarre 24 Hours End With Man Facing Burglary Charge, Exposure Investigation: Calvert Sheriff Bizarre 24 Hours End With Man Facing Burglary Charge, Exposure Investigation: Calvert Sheriff
Bizarre 24 Hours End With Man Facing Burglary Charge, Exposure Investigation: Calvert Sheriff One bizarre encounter was odd enough. Then deputies started connecting the dots. A Prince George's County man is accused of popping up in a string of strange incidents across Southern Maryland over the course of 24 hours, culminating in an attempted burglary charge and an ongoing indecent exposure investigation. The Calvert County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded to multiple unrelated calls between Wednesday, July 15, and Thursday, July 16, including a welfare check, an attempted break-in at a home on B Street in Chesapeake Beach, and a reported indecent exposure on the North Beach …

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Annapolis, MD
Politics
Maryland Named In White House Voter Roll Disclosure; AG Says Elections Remain Secure Maryland Named In White House Voter Roll Disclosure; AG Says Elections Remain Secure
Maryland Named In White House Voter Roll Disclosure; AG Says Elections Remain Secure Maryland found itself at the center of President Donald Trump's primetime address on election security. During a nationally televised speech on Thursday night, July 16, Trump announced the release of declassified intelligence records that he said showed voter registration rolls in at least 18 states had been "compromised" by the People's Republic of China.  Maryland was among the states identified by name in a White House document released ahead of the address. The document states that more than 200 million voter records were compromised by China and says Trump is alerting congression…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Hagerstown, MD
Police & Fire
Maryland Murder Suspect Tracked Down In Baltimore After Deadly Hagerstown Shooting: Police Maryland Murder Suspect Tracked Down In Baltimore After Deadly Hagerstown Shooting: Police
Maryland Murder Suspect Tracked Down In Baltimore After Deadly Hagerstown Shooting: Police He wasn't hiding anymore. A Maryland man wanted for a Washington County killing that happened nearly two months ago has been captured in Baltimore and is now facing a murder charge. Members of the US Marshals Capital Area Regional Task Force and the Hagerstown Police Warrant Task Force arrested 20-year-old Nadeem Ameen Davis, of Baltimore, around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 16, in the 3000 block of East Madison Street, according to the Hagerstown Police Department. Authorities say Davis was wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of Mitchell Omar Reddick on Sunday, May 25. The inves…

SHARE

by Zak Failla
Prev Page 1 of 3831 1 2 3 4 5 Next
1 - 10 of 38,306 articles