Former Orleans County Woman Charged in Fatal Border Patrol Shootout Gun Purchase

A former Orleans County woman has been officially charged with the illegal purchase of two firearms used by friends in a deadly shootout with the U.S. Border Patrol last month in Coventry. Michelle J. Zajko, 32, formerly of Orleans was named in a one-count criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Burlington by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. She is charged with making false statements while buying four handguns on Feb. 13 and 14, 2024, at The Last Frontier, a federally licensed gun dealer on U.S. 7 in Mount Tabor, south of Rutland. The complaint maintains Zajko later provided two firearms carried by Teresa Youngblut, 21, and Felix Bauckholt, 28, during the deadly traffic stop by the U.S. Border Patrol on Interstate 91 in Coventry about 3 p.m. Jan. 20.