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

Fort Washington, MD
Breaking News
WATCH: Bodycam Shows Tense Moments Before Fatal Fort Washington Park Police Shooting WATCH: Bodycam Shows Tense Moments Before Fatal Fort Washington Park Police Shooting
Watch: Bodycam Shows Tense Moments Before Fatal Fort Washington Park Police Shooting What began with reports of an armed man near the Potomac ended with a gunshot, a frantic rush into the water and officers trying to save a Maryland man as their body cameras rolled. Nearly a month after 30-year-old Alex Charles was fatally shot by a Maryland-National Capital Park Police officer, the Maryland Attorney General's Office has released body-worn camera footage showing the tense encounter unfold at Fort Washington Park in Prince George's County. The shooting happened shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, July 31, after officers were called to the park for reports of a shooting and a man…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Pirro Disappointed With Sentence For 'Brutal' DC Ambush That Ended With Victim Stripped: DOJ Pirro Disappointed With Sentence For 'Brutal' DC Ambush That Ended With Victim Stripped: DOJ
Pirro Disappointed With Sentence For 'Brutal' DC Ambush That Ended With Victim Stripped: DOJ Gregory Grooms waited more than three hours outside his victim's apartment before springing a violent ambush. Now he will have five years in prison to think about that choice. The 27-year-old District resident was sentenced to five years in prison in DC Superior Court in connection with an attack in August 2024, according to the US Attorney's Office. "After this defendant and his accomplice spent hours lying in wait for their victim, they ambushed him at gunpoint, repeatedly pistol-whipped him, forced him to strip, and paraded him naked through his apartment building,” US Attorney Jeanine P…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
21-Year-Old Man Identified By Police As Victim In Fatal DC Quadruple Shooting 21-Year-Old Man Identified By Police As Victim In Fatal DC Quadruple Shooting
21-Year-Old Man Identified By Police As Victim In Fatal DC Quadruple Shooting A burst of Friday afternoon gunfire has left a 21-year-old DC man dead and police searching for answers. Cortes Lilly, of Northeast DC, has been identified as the man killed in the quadruple shooting that broke out at approximately 1:42 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, in the 6200 block of Dix Street NE, the Metropolitan Police Department announced Saturday. Four men were found shot when officers reached the scene. Lilly was unconscious and not breathing. The other three men were conscious and breathing, police said. Three were taken by ambulance to area hospitals, while Lilly was airlifted by fi…

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by Zak Failla
Annapolis, MD
Breaking News
$7.5M Heist: Hacker Hijacked Charity Emails To Pull Off Elaborate Maryland Scam, Feds Say $7.5M Heist: Hacker Hijacked Charity Emails To Pull Off Elaborate Maryland Scam, Feds Say
$7.5M Heist: Hacker Hijacked Charity Emails To Pull Off Elaborate Maryland Scam, Feds Say He didn't need a gun to pull off a multimillion-dollar heist. A Nigerian national who infiltrated employee email accounts and helped redirect more than $7.5 million from two charities, including one in Maryland, will spend eight years in federal prison for the elaborate cyber scheme. Olusegun Samson Adejorin, 32, was sentenced on Friday, Aug. 28, to 96 months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release, after a federal jury found him guilty of a wide-ranging scam following a six-day trial, according to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The scheme ra…

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by Zak Failla
Annapolis, MD
Breaking News
Reported Explosion Rocks Annapolis ZIPS Cleaners Before Occupant Puts Out Fire Reported Explosion Rocks Annapolis ZIPS Cleaners Before Occupant Puts Out Fire
Reported Explosion Rocks Annapolis Zips Cleaners Before Occupant Puts Out Fire What sounded like an explosion ended with a much better outcome in Maryland. Firefighters were called to ZIPS Cleaners in the 1900 block of West Street in Annapolis on Saturday, Aug. 29, for a reported explosion and commercial building fire, according to the fire department. By the time crews from the Annapolis Fire Department arrived, the danger had largely passed. Firefighters determined that a dry-cleaning machine malfunctioned, causing a sudden pressure release involving the machine and an adjacent dryer. An occupant inside the business quickly grabbed a portable fire extinguisher and…

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by Zak Failla
McLean, VA
Breaking News
Daycare Teacher Assaulted Two 2-Year-Old Boys In McLean, Police Say Daycare Teacher Assaulted Two 2-Year-Old Boys In McLean, Police Say
Daycare Teacher Assaulted Two 2-Year-Old Boys In McLean, Police Say Two children were allegedly assaulted by a 61-year-old daycare teacher in Northern Virginia, according to police. Alexandria resident Wafa Abdelhafiz Abdalla, an educator at the Faz Creative Education Learning Center in the 1700 block of Old Meadow Road in McLean, was arrested this week following an investigation into alleged assaults on children. Detectives from the Fairfax County Police Department determined that Abdalla forcefully pushed a 2-year-old boy to the floor and struck another 2-year-old boy in the head with an open hand while working as a teacher at the daycare. Abdalla was ar…

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by Zak Failla
Elkton, MD
Breaking News
Firefighters Put Out Elkton Fire. Hours Later, The Same Home Was Engulfed Firefighters Put Out Elkton Fire. Hours Later, The Same Home Was Engulfed
Firefighters Put Out Elkton Fire. Hours Later, The Same Home Was Engulfed They thought they had put the fire out. Hours later, a Maryland home was engulfed in flames. The strange sequence began shortly after 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, when a resident on Walnut Lane in Elkton reported smoke inside the attic, according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal. Firefighters arrived at approximately 9:08 p.m. and found a small, smoldering fire involving the home's electrical system. Crews quickly extinguished it, secured power to the three-story home, and eventually cleared the scene. Then, less than eight hours later, came another 911 call. At 4:55 a.m. on Saturday, A…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
'Make Me Look Fancy': Woman Who Livestreamed WWII Memorial Vandalism In DC Indicted, Feds Say 'Make Me Look Fancy': Woman Who Livestreamed WWII Memorial Vandalism In DC Indicted, Feds Say
'Make Me Look Fancy': Woman Who Livestreamed WWII Memorial Vandalism In DC Indicted, Feds Say Melissa Farris apparently wasn't interested in keeping a low profile. Three days after livestreaming her own arrest near the National Mall, the 41-year-old Kentucky woman allegedly returned to federal property in DC with spray paint, turned the World War II Memorial into her canvas, filmed herself doing it, and later asked her social media followers to help spread the footage. Now she's been indicted. A federal grand jury returned charges against Farris, of Elizabethtown, accusing her of destruction of a veterans' memorial and destruction of government property in connection with the Aug. …

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by Zak Failla
Fredericksburg, VA
Breaking News
TikTok Prank Ends With 10 Shots Fired, Spotsy Man Convicted Of Teen's Murder: Prosecutors TikTok Prank Ends With 10 Shots Fired, Spotsy Man Convicted Of Teen's Murder: Prosecutors
TikTok Prank Ends With 10 Shots Fired, Spotsy Man Convicted Of Teen's Murder: Prosecutors What was first described as a deadly home invasion in Virginia looked very different by the time a jury saw the video. Tyler Chase Butler was convicted in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court in connection with the murder of 18-year-old Michael Bosworth Jr. in May last year. All over a TikTok prank. The verdict followed a three-day trial that filled in the chaotic moments before and after Butler fired 10 shots outside his home in the River Club subdivision. Bosworth and two friends had been out pulling a late-night prank, banging and kicking on a neighbor's garage door before running away, a…

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by Zak Failla
Purcellville, VA
Breaking News
Where Is Carolyn Taylor? Search Presses On Five Days After Purcelleville Woman, 81, Vanished Where Is Carolyn Taylor? Search Presses On Five Days After Purcelleville Woman, 81, Vanished
Where Is Carolyn Taylor? Search Presses On Five Days After Purcelleville Woman, 81, Vanished Five days later, the search isn't letting up for an 81-year-old woman who vanished after going for a walk in Virginia. A large law enforcement presence remained in the Lincoln Road area of Purcellville on Friday, Aug. 28, as the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office continued searching for Carolyn Taylor, who hasn't been seen since Sunday morning. Taylor was last spotted at approximately 10:40 a.m. on Aug. 23 in the 18000 block of Foundry Road, according to the sheriff's office. The search in Loudoun County is intensifying. Loudoun County Sheriff She had left for a walk and never returne…

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by Zak Failla
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