Zak Failla

Assistant Managing Editor

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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

Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Tequila, Ghost Gun, Child In Back Seat: DC Felon's Gas Station Getaway Goes Bust Tequila, Ghost Gun, Child In Back Seat: DC Felon's Gas Station Getaway Goes Bust Tequila, Ghost Gun, Child In Back Seat: DC Felon's Gas Station Getaway Goes Bust
Tequila, Ghost Gun, Child In Back Seat: DC Felon's Gas Station Getaway Goes Bust It was a bad place to try to make a run for it. With a young child in the back seat and federal agents surrounding his car at a crowded DC gas station, Dayvon Darius Marson allegedly hit the gas anyway, dragging an ATF agent before crashing into another vehicle. That decision ultimately helped send the 31-year-old DC felon to federal prison for two years on Friday, Oct. 2. The trouble started months earlier, shortly after 6:15 p.m. on Feb. 26, when Marson pulled into a Citgo in the 3800 block of Minnesota Avenue NE in a Toyota Avalon with heavily tinted windows. Metropolitan Police office…

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by Zak Failla
College Park, MD
Breaking News
'We Just Want You Home': Family Pleads For Help Finding Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar 'We Just Want You Home': Family Pleads For Help Finding Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar 'We Just Want You Home': Family Pleads For Help Finding Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar
'We Just Want You Home': Family Pleads For Help Finding Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar A Maryland family just wants their son home. The search for 22-year-old University of Maryland student Dilan Shaan Ashar intensified on Saturday, Oct. 3, after campus police released new surveillance images that dramatically changed the timeline of his disappearance. Ashar was last seen on camera at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Terrapin Trail Garage on the UMD campus in College Park, according to the University of Maryland Police Department. Police have classified Ashar as a critical missing student and are asking for the public's help finding him. The latest images s…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Man Pulled On Car Door Handles Before Gun Handoff, Deadly Chase Through DC: Feds Man Pulled On Car Door Handles Before Gun Handoff, Deadly Chase Through DC: Feds Man Pulled On Car Door Handles Before Gun Handoff, Deadly Chase Through DC: Feds
Man Pulled On Car Door Handles Before Gun Handoff, Deadly Chase Through DC: Feds It started with someone pulling on car door handles at 4:15 in the morning. It ended with a 23-year-old dead, and two men facing murder charges nearly two months later. District residents Henry Buchanan, 48, and Charles Jenkins, 46, were arrested in connection with the Aug. 4 shooting death of Xavier Fogle in Northwest DC, federal authorities announced on Friday, Oct. 2. According to court documents, surveillance cameras captured Fogle pulling on door handles in the 1400 block of Clifton Street NW, including one belonging to Buchanan. Buchanan came out of a nearby building and confronted F…

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by Zak Failla
Alexandria, VA
Breaking News
Murder Suspect Brought Back To Virginia Months After Deadly Alexandria Shooting (VIDEO) Murder Suspect Brought Back To Virginia Months After Deadly Alexandria Shooting (VIDEO) Murder Suspect Brought Back To Virginia Months After Deadly Alexandria Shooting (VIDEO)
Murder Suspect Brought Back To Virginia Months After Deadly Alexandria Shooting (Video) It took months, surveillance footage and a trail that stretched into another state, but Virginia investigators say they found the man responsible for a deadly summer shooting. Corey Delantau Stubblefield, 38, of Alexandria, has been indicted in connection with the July 15 shooting death of 36-year-old Charles Talley and was brought back from North Carolina this week, Alexandria Police officials announced. The shooting was reported shortly before 11:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the ParcView Apartments in the 5300 block of Holmes Run Parkway. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found …

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by Zak Failla
Owings Mills, MD
Breaking News
22-Year-Old Killed, Two Hospitalized After Baltimore County Crash: Police 22-Year-Old Killed, Two Hospitalized After Baltimore County Crash: Police 22-Year-Old Killed, Two Hospitalized After Baltimore County Crash: Police
22-Year-Old Killed, Two Hospitalized After Baltimore County Crash: Police A Friday night drive turned deadly in Maryland. Cameron Crosell, 22, was killed in a two-vehicle crash near Red Run Boulevard and Meadows Road in Baltimore County at approximately 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, police announced the following morning. According to Baltimore County police, a 2004 Honda Accord was traveling on Red Run Boulevard toward Meadows Road before crashing with a 2018 GMC Yukon that had been heading northeast in the opposite direction. Crosell was rushed to an area hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The driver of the Yukon and a passenger in the Honda were al…

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by Zak Failla
Silver Spring, MD
Breaking News
Resident Burned Trying To Fight Candle-Sparked Fire Inside Silver Spring High-Rise Resident Burned Trying To Fight Candle-Sparked Fire Inside Silver Spring High-Rise Resident Burned Trying To Fight Candle-Sparked Fire Inside Silver Spring High-Rise
Resident Burned Trying To Fight Candle-Sparked Fire Inside Silver Spring High-Rise A candle left burning in a closet quickly became more than one Maryland resident could handle. The fire broke out at around 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 2, inside an eighth-floor apartment at Blair Plaza Apartments on Blair Mill Road in Silver Spring, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service officials. A 911 caller reported flames inside a closet, prompting a massive response to the 15-story building that was not equipped with sprinklers. Approximately 70 firefighters responded as crews made their way into the eighth-floor unit, where they found an active fire and kept the fl…

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by Zak Failla
Lexington Park, MD
Breaking News
Two Dozen Uploads Led Feds To Maryland Man Now Facing Child Exploitation Charge: DOJ Two Dozen Uploads Led Feds To Maryland Man Now Facing Child Exploitation Charge: DOJ Two Dozen Uploads Led Feds To Maryland Man Now Facing Child Exploitation Charge: DOJ
Two Dozen Uploads Led Feds To Maryland Man Now Facing Child Exploitation Charge: DOJ More than two dozen files uploaded to an online account led investigators to a Maryland man who now faces a federal child exploitation charge carrying at least 15 years behind bars, prosecutors say. Charles Mark Wooters, 34, of Easton, was indicted on eight federal counts involving child sex abuse material, the US Attorney's Office announced on Friday, Oct. 2. The case dates back to November 2025, when prosecutors say Wooters uploaded more than two dozen files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to an internet-based storage account. Investigators apparently found more whe…

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by Zak Failla
Towson, MD
Breaking News
19 Kilos Of Cocaine, Loaded Guns, Fentanyl Pills: Baltimore Dealer Admits Role In Drug Ring 19 Kilos Of Cocaine, Loaded Guns, Fentanyl Pills: Baltimore Dealer Admits Role In Drug Ring 19 Kilos Of Cocaine, Loaded Guns, Fentanyl Pills: Baltimore Dealer Admits Role In Drug Ring
19 Kilos Of Cocaine, Loaded Guns, Fentanyl Pills: Baltimore Dealer Admits Role In Drug Ring The cocaine traveled a long way before hitting the streets. A Maryland drug operation moved bulk quantities from California into stash houses before David Carroll, 35, helped distribute it around Baltimore, authorities announced on Friday. Federal investigators began watching the Baltimore-based organization in 2023 as they tracked large quantities of cocaine making their way across the country. Carroll became a familiar face at one of the group's stash houses inside a Baltimore apartment. In October 2023, investigators watched him walk out of the apartment with what they believed were dr…

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by Zak Failla
Fairfax, VA
Breaking News
16-Year-Old Surrenders Days After 2 Men Shot In Hybla Valley: Police 16-Year-Old Surrenders Days After 2 Men Shot In Hybla Valley: Police 16-Year-Old Surrenders Days After 2 Men Shot In Hybla Valley: Police
16-Year-Old Surrenders Days After 2 Men Shot In Hybla Valley: Police A teenager responsible for a double shooting in Northern Virginia surrendered this week, days after two men were hospitalized, police say. Officers from the Fairfax County Police Department were called around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to the 7700 block of Richmond Highway in Hybla Valley, where there was a reported shooting. Upon arrival, first responders found one man suffering from a gunshot wound to his lower body and a second man suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body. Both injuries were considered non-life-threatening. Investigators say a 16-year-old who knew both vic…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Pair Used Stolen IDs To Land DC Apartments, Then Exploited Eviction Delays: Feds Pair Used Stolen IDs To Land DC Apartments, Then Exploited Eviction Delays: Feds Pair Used Stolen IDs To Land DC Apartments, Then Exploited Eviction Delays: Feds
Pair Used Stolen IDs To Land DC Apartments, Then Exploited Eviction Delays: Feds They found a way to live rent-free. Then prosecutors say they kept doing it. Two DC residents are accused of cycling through stolen and fake identities to land apartments without paying the bills, exploiting an eviction process that could keep them inside for months while losses climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maliktra Derenorcourt, 27, and Philippe Oliver Gadie, 34, were charged in a seven-count indictment unsealed this week as federal investigators continue digging into what they describe as a multiyear housing and Social Security fraud scheme. The alleged playbook was…

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by Zak Failla
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