Slenderman and the suspect inside the Capitol.
A family member identified Zachary Jordan Alam as the Inter Milan shirt-wearing Capitol rioter who was recorded repeatedly smashing Speaker’s Lobby windows on Jan. 6 in the moments just before the fatal police shooting of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, the FBI alleged in a criminal complaint.
Alam, 29, was arrested on Saturday in Denver (not Colorado, but the Eastern District of Pennsylvania). The Washington Post obtained perhaps the clearest video of the Babbitt shooting two days after it occurred. In the video, Alam can be seen on the front lines of the chaos and destruction, punching glass as nervous-looking officers stand between the mob and the doors.
Alam appeared to be wearing a MAGA hat underneath a “black and tan fur-lined hat.” The Post video shows Alam, MAGA hat in hand, smashing the windows of a Speaker’s Lobby door with a helmet.
The Post video shows Babbitt right next to Alam.
Another angle of the soon-to-be deadly situation clearly showed the suspect’s face, the brim of his MAGA hat visible under the fur hat.
According to complaint, Alam entered the Capitol just after 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6. From here, he and others made their way to the Speaker’s Lobby doors. Once there, Alam was “observed repeatedly punching the glass panels of the doors immediately behind the officers, causing the glass to splinter,” per the FBI.
“While throwing two of the punches, [Alam] pushed his body up against one of the Capitol Police officers guarding the door. Members of the crowd were shouting and gesticulating at the officers,” documents said. “[Alam] is in video footage shouting ‘Fuck the blue’ multiple times in the faces of the U.S. Capitol Police officers who were standing post outside the Speaker’s lobby door.”
A witness (W-1), identified as a family member of Alam’s, corroborated basic information about the suspect. W-1 said, for instance, that Alam had the same Inter Milan shirt and had a “$250k in 2020” tattoo. The family member also gave law enforcement Alam’s phone number, email and age.
“ALAM told W-1 that he was sorry for what he had done at the U.S. Capitol but he was not going to turn himself into authorities because he did not want to go to jail again,” the FBI said.
The charges include: assault on a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon; destruction of government property (over $1,000); obstruction of an official proceeding; unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds; violent Entry and disorderly conduct.
The docket in Alam’s case does not currently list a defense attorney of record.
[Images via FBI, Washington Post/screengrab]