Suspect in Capitol riot arrested after family member tells him: FBI

  • Zachary Alam, 29, was arrested Saturday in Denver, Pennsylvania.
  • Alam is accused of breaking the windows after which a riot tried to creep in when she was fatally shot.
  • According to Alam’s criminal charge, a ‘family member’ helped the FBI locate him.
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A man who smashed a window in the Speaker’s lobby during the Capitol riot has been arrested after a family member sent a tip about him, the FBI said.

Zachary Alam, 29, was arrested Saturday in Denver, Pennsylvania, at the Penn Amish Motel, WHTM reported.

He faces charges of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon; destruction of government property over $ 1,000; obstruction of an official process; illegal access to a restricted building or site; and violent intrusion and disorderly conduct, according to the criminal charge.

The FBI agent who compiled the complaint said they saw footage of a man, who identified them as Alam, entering the Capitol during a shattered window in the Senate wing.

He forced himself past Capitol police officers and “appeared excited” when he came through the building and at one point came close to the face of an officer, the complaint reads.

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According to an FBI agent, photos from a video showed Alam smashing the windows with a helmet.

U.S. District Court for Columbia District


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Alam was arrested in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

U.S. District Court for Columbia District


Alam and others came face to face at the glass doors to the Speaker’s Lobby – the room outside the living room – with officers guarding the doors, the complaint reads.

The FBI agent said Alam was “observed hitting the glass panels of the doors repeatedly with his fists behind the officers and causing the glass to shatter.”

Read more: False deceiving liars scurry to avoid lawsuits, but they can not retaliate for the damage they did

While punching, Alam ‘pushed his body up against one of the Capitol police officers guarding the door’, the charge reads.

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Ashli ​​Babbitt was fatally shot while trying to climb through one of the broken windows.

Maryland MVA / thanks to the sheriff’s office in Calvert County via AP



“Alam was seen in video footage shouting ‘F — the blue’ several times in the faces of U.S. police officers in the Capitol who stood outside the speaker’s lobby,” the complaint read.

“Seconds after officers walked away from the door, Alam ‘started kicking the glass panels’ and then smashed with a helmet he had taken from another person in the crowd, the complaint reads.

“He repeatedly hit the middle glass panel with his helmet and smashed the window further,” the complaint reads.

The complaint noted that the song ‘Break it down!’ and “Let’s go!” could be heard in the background of these videos.

Ashli ​​Babbitt was later fatally shot as he tried to climb through one of the shattered windows. According to the complaint, Alam can be seen in footage of the shooting.

The FBI agent said they were able to locate Alam after receiving an anonymous fee on January 14 from a person who identified themselves as a family member of Alam. The family member gave the FBI details about Alam’s identity, which agents used to get her a driver’s license photo, which matches the man in the riot videos, the agent said.

According to the criminal complaint, the family member told the FBI that Alam called them after a riot of a new phone number and did not want to say where he was. The complaint describes the family member as saying that Alam told them “he is sorry for what he did to the US capital, but he is not going to turn himself into authorities because he does not want to go to jail again.”

The family member also told the FBI that after the riot, Alam asked other family members if he could stay with them, and said the FBI was looking for him.

Public records show that Alam is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.

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