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

Greenbelt, MD
Breaking News
WATCH: Bodycam Released In Maryland In-Custody Death After Greenbelt Crash WATCH: Bodycam Released In Maryland In-Custody Death After Greenbelt Crash WATCH: Bodycam Released In Maryland In-Custody Death After Greenbelt Crash
Watch: Bodycam Released In Maryland In-Custody Death After Greenbelt Crash The moments leading up to a Maryland man's death while in police custody are now public. The Maryland Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, July 29, released body-worn camera footage from Greenbelt police officers who responded after 40-year-old Michael MacDougall crashed off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County earlier this month. The video, released by the Independent Investigations Division, captures officers arriving after US Park Police had already detained and handcuffed MacDougall following the crash. In the video, MacDougall can be seen lying in the grass no…

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by Zak Failla
Hagerstown, MD
Breaking News
Cross-Country Fugitive Finally Faces Fate In Hagerstown Murder Case Cross-Country Fugitive Finally Faces Fate In Hagerstown Murder Case Cross-Country Fugitive Finally Faces Fate In Hagerstown Murder Case
Cross-Country Fugitive Finally Faces Fate In Hagerstown Murder Case Raymond Garfield Campbell III made it all the way to California. He should have kept going. Nearly six years after a Hagerstown man was gunned down in broad daylight, the fugitive who fled across the country after the killing has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Raymond Garfield Campbell III received two consecutive life sentences plus another 35 years on Tuesday, July 28, after a judge sentenced him for the October 2020 murder of 40-year-old Daynard Johnson, the Washington County State's Attorney's Office announced Wednesday. Prosecutors said Campbell followed Joh…

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by Zak Failla
Mechanicsville, MD
Breaking News
Mechanicsville Mom 'Ready To FIGHT' After Aggressive Breast Cancer Diagnosis Mechanicsville Mom 'Ready To FIGHT' After Aggressive Breast Cancer Diagnosis Mechanicsville Mom 'Ready To FIGHT' After Aggressive Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Mechanicsville Mom 'Ready To Fight' After Aggressive Breast Cancer Diagnosis The people who know Maegan Showalter all seem to tell the same story: she's the one who shows up. The Maryland wife, mother and friend has spent years celebrating others, lending a hand without being asked, and helping carry people through life's hardest moments.  Now, after an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis turned her own life upside down, an entire community is trying to return the favor. Showalter received the news from her doctors in June. Since then, the Mechanicsville mother has begun weekly chemotherapy and immunotherapy, with multiple surgeries still ahead. The trea…

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by Zak Failla
Woodbridge, VA
Breaking News
Teen's Hair Slashed During Attack On Elementary School Basketball Court In Woodbridge: Police Teen's Hair Slashed During Attack On Elementary School Basketball Court In Woodbridge: Police Teen's Hair Slashed During Attack On Elementary School Basketball Court In Woodbridge: Police
Teen's Hair Slashed During Attack On Elementary School Basketball Court In Woodbridge: Police A robbery is one thing. Having your hair slashed with a knife is another. A 17-year-old boy was cut on the hand and had his hair sliced during an early morning robbery on the basketball courts at an elementary school, according to Prince William County Police. The attack happened around 10:08 a.m. on Sunday, July 26, at King Elementary School in the Woodbridge area. Police said the teen was on the courts when three acquaintances approached him. What happened next was unexpected. Investigators said two of the group assaulted and robbed the victim. During the attack, one of the suspect…

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by Zak Failla
Lexington Park, MD
Breaking News
Lexington Park Drug Bust Reveals Tiny Detail That Triggered Machine Gun Charges, Sheriff Says Lexington Park Drug Bust Reveals Tiny Detail That Triggered Machine Gun Charges, Sheriff Says Lexington Park Drug Bust Reveals Tiny Detail That Triggered Machine Gun Charges, Sheriff Says
Lexington Park Drug Bust Reveals Tiny Detail That Triggered Machine Gun Charges, Sheriff Says One search warrant. Two handguns. More than $10,000 in cash. That's what deputies say they uncovered Wednesday morning during a drug investigation in Maryland that ended with a Lexington Park man facing a slate of felony charges. The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office executed search warrants on July 29 at a home in the 21000 block of Mary Margaret Court in Lexington Park, where investigators say they found suspected cocaine, suspected crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, two firearms and bundles of cash. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Ofori Holmes, was arrested after deputies allege…

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by Zak Failla
Gaithersburg, MD
Breaking News
Car Break-Ins Lead Detectives To Bethesda Motel 6 Room Packed With Guns, Stolen Gear Car Break-Ins Lead Detectives To Bethesda Motel 6 Room Packed With Guns, Stolen Gear Car Break-Ins Lead Detectives To Bethesda Motel 6 Room Packed With Guns, Stolen Gear
Car Break-Ins Lead Detectives To Bethesda Motel 6 Room Packed With Guns, Stolen Gear Their biggest mistake wasn't stealing from unlocked cars. It was taking electronics detectives could trace. In Maryland, what began as a string of overnight thefts from unlocked vehicles in Bethesda ended inside a Gaithersburg Motel 6, where Montgomery County detectives say they found two suspects, stolen property and firearms tied to a separate case. The thefts happened during the early morning hours of July 14 in neighborhoods along Broad Brook Drive, Enfield Road, Page Avenue and Locust Hill Road. Surveillance cameras captured two men walking from vehicle to vehicle, pulling on door ha…

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by Zak Failla
National Interest
911 Call, Doorbell Video Released After Eric Bieniemy's Son Shoots Mother In Northern Virginia 911 Call, Doorbell Video Released After Eric Bieniemy's Son Shoots Mother In Northern Virginia 911 Call, Doorbell Video Released After Eric Bieniemy's Son Shoots Mother In Northern Virginia
911 Call, Doorbell Video Released After Eric Bieniemy's Son Shoots Mother In Northern Virginia New details are emerging after the son of NFL coach Eric Bieniemy shot his mother in Northern Virginia. Mia Bieniemy, 57, was allegedly shot by their 27-year-old son, Elijah Zion Bieniemy, in the 20000 block of Northpark Drive in Ashburn during a weekend altercation, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. Mia Bieniemy was taken to an area hospital for treatment and evaluation of her injuries. Her son is now charged with malicious wounding and other weapons offenses. In the days following the shocking shooting, the dispatch call has been released by Good Morning Am…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Married DC National Guard Major From Arlington Built Double Life With Fake Divorce, Feds Say Married DC National Guard Major From Arlington Built Double Life With Fake Divorce, Feds Say Married DC National Guard Major From Arlington Built Double Life With Fake Divorce, Feds Say
Married DC National Guard Major From Arlington Built Double Life With Fake Divorce, Feds Say One fake divorce. Two weddings to the same woman. And a stack of bogus government documents to keep the whole thing going. Collin L. Welch, a 40-year-old DC National Guard major from Arlington, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to an immigration fraud scheme that prosecutors say stretched from Mongolia to Virginia and was partly funded with $54,000 in stolen government money. Welch was already married when he began a relationship with a Mongolian woman in 2019 while posted to the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, according to court documents. So he created a divorce decree. The docum…

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by Zak Failla
Woodbridge, VA
Breaking News
Cup Tossed, Gun Drawn: Woman Wanted After Wild Woodbridge Bar Fight Escalates (DEVELOPING) Cup Tossed, Gun Drawn: Woman Wanted After Wild Woodbridge Bar Fight Escalates (DEVELOPING) Cup Tossed, Gun Drawn: Woman Wanted After Wild Woodbridge Bar Fight Escalates (DEVELOPING)
Cup Tossed, Gun Drawn: Woman Wanted After Wild Woodbridge Bar Fight Escalates (Developing) Some people throw a drink. Others throw a punch. Police say one woman skipped straight to a gun. Prince William County police are searching for an Ashburn woman accused of turning what started as a run-of-the-mill bar fight into a felony after she was allegedly hit with a cup outside a Woodbridge nightclub. Officers were called to El Establo on Richmond Highway around 1:47 a.m. on Sunday, July 26, after reports of a gunshot in the parking lot. Investigators say 31-year-old Avisha Brianna Smith and an acquaintance had gotten into an altercation with an unknown man when things took a turn. …

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Your Community
Jailed Overseas For Credit Card Fraud, ICE Arrests Repeat Suspect In Downtown DC Jailed Overseas For Credit Card Fraud, ICE Arrests Repeat Suspect In Downtown DC Jailed Overseas For Credit Card Fraud, ICE Arrests Repeat Suspect In Downtown DC
Jailed Overseas For Credit Card Fraud, ICE Arrests Repeat Suspect In Downtown DC He'd already served prison time overseas for credit card fraud. Federal authorities say he came to the United States anyway, overstayed his visa, and wound up accused of doing it again. A Hungarian-Romanian man wanted in Virginia on credit card fraud charges has been arrested after a weeks-long hunt that ended with ICE officers tracking him down in downtown DC. Sebastian Mihai Caraba was taken into custody by officers with ICE Washington's Fugitive Operations Team after investigators identified both him and his vehicle and followed him to a location he had been frequenting in the city, the…

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by Zak Failla
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