Zachary Jordan Alam, the Jan. 6 rioter who vandalized windows, taunted police, and incited chaos in the U.S. Capitol hallway where Ashli Babbitt was shot, was arrested in Virginia on a state felony burglary count and a misdemeanor destruction of property charge.
Just months removed from a pardon issued by President Donald J. Trump, Alam, 33, of Centreville, Virginia, was arrested and charged for burglary in Henrico County, southeast of Richmond, court records show.
Alam, who was serving an eight-year Jan. 6 prison sentence when he was pardoned, was charged with one count of entering a dwelling at night for the purpose of burglary, a Class 3 felony that carries a potential prison term between five and 20 years.
‘He was then taken by force to a psychiatric facility.’
He was also charged with one Commonwealth of Virginia count of destruction of property valued at less than $1,000, a Class 1 misdemeanor with potential jail time of one year.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for June 24 in Henrico General District Court.
Blaze News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the police reports surrounding Alam’s arrest, but the County of Henrico Police Division denied the request because “the incident is still being investigated and/or the case has not been fully adjudicated.”
Alam was the central figure in the rioting that broke out in the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021. He punched the glass panels in the entry door, narrowly missing the left side of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Christopher Lanciano’s face, video showed. He also punched at the glass panel behind Officer Kyle Yetter and Sgt. Timothy Lively.
He ended his spree using a black riot helmet to bash out panes of glass in the doors and side panels, according to video. That earned him the online nickname “Helmet Boy.”
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Rioter Zachary Alam changes clothes in the Crypt at the U.S. Capitol shortly after entering the building on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV
“Alam intentionally put himself at the front of the mob, where he threatened the USCP officers, yelling, ‘I’m going to f*** you up!’ in their faces,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s sentencing memo and supplement.
“All said, in the course of just 25 seconds, Alam violently kicked the doors three times, then smashed the doors and glass panes with the helmet an additional nine times, breaking two glass panes completely out,” the DOJ memo said. “All the while, Alam’s actions exacerbated the chaos, inflaming the mob overall.”
A jury found Alam guilty of 10 charges on Sept. 12, 2023, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; obstructing officers during a civil disorder; destruction of government property; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and seven other counts.
‘We need guns, bro!’
He was sentenced on Nov. 7, 2024, to eight years in prison by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee. Alam’s obstruction of an official proceeding verdict was tossed out based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark June 2024 decision in Fischer v. United States.
Alam’s sentencing was repeatedly delayed after the trial. His defense team filed some information about him under court seal. His mother, Karyn L. Alam, disclosed to defense attorney Steven Metcalf II and the court that Alam had a history of substance abuse and psychiatric troubles that were unknown to the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services office.
Rioter Zachary Jordan Alam (wearing helmet) is confronted by protesters minutes after the fatal shooting of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Capitol Police CCTV
Karyn Alam said her son attempted suicide while he was a student at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine in Dothan, Alabama.
“I was notified by the school that Zachary was found in a bathroom stall with a belt around his neck,” she wrote. “This is around the same time that we made the decision for him to withdraw from medical school. Based on my best recollection, he was then taken by force to a psychiatric facility.”
Alam’s attorney appealed his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Dec. 2, 2024. The appeals court, citing Trump’s pardon declaration issued shortly after he was sworn in on Jan. 20, vacated Alam’s convictions on April 14, 2025. The federal district court in D.C. then dismissed Alam’s Jan. 6 case as moot.
Babbitt, who was the first protester to reach the Speaker’s Lobby entrance at 2:36 p.m., grew visibly worried as a large crowd filled in around her. She shouted at the three officers to “call f***ing help” when they made no moves to de-escalate the crowd or subdue Alam during his violent spree.
After the three officers abandoned their post, other rioters joined in the attack on the doorway, using a flagpole, karate kicks, and the kinetic force of their bodies in failed attempts to breach the doors.
After Alam smashed out the window in the side panel, Babbitt grabbed him by the backpack, spun him toward her, and punched him in the face with a left hook, according to video discovered by the Epoch Times. The blow knocked off his glasses. An instant later, Babbitt jumped up in the now-empty sidelight window and was immediately shot by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.
“You want to be next?”
Seeing Babbitt bleeding after she fell back to the floor, Alam jumped back and bolted down a nearby staircase, brushing past a four-man Capitol Police SWAT team coming up the stairs. He was seen on the landing with his hand on his head, looking distressed.
After the shooting, protesters vented anger at the police, who told the crowd to get back so medical help could reach Babbitt.
“She’s going to f***ing die!” Officer Yetter roared at the crowd. “You want to be next?”
As Alam left the building, he was heard on a protester’s video stating, “We need guns, bro … we need guns,” the DOJ said.
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Zachary Jordan Alam (in black Pirelli T-shirt), takes an elevator from the Crypt in the U.S. Capitol to the fourth floor before walking down an interior staircase to the second floor, where he joined a large contingent of protesters near the main House door.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV
Alam was one of the most active provocateurs on Jan. 6. Wearing a floppy-ear Canada Goose cap, he became one of the most recognizable Jan. 6 figures. Video showed he helped protesters climb makeshift ladders leaned against the Northwest Steps so they could access the Upper Terrace and the Senate Wing Door entrance to the Capitol.
Once inside the Crypt level of the Capitol, Alam changed his clothes, then took an elevator to the fourth floor. He accessed a back stairway and descended two levels. While on the third floor, video shot by Paul Kovacik showed, Alam took a velvet theater rope with weighted brass ends and threw it down an open area at police standing below.
‘We’d love to f***ing revolutionize the whole world!’
Once Alam reached the second floor, he walked toward the main House entrance and was trailed by Jason Gandolph, an officer with the House Sergeant at Arms office. Widely shared video showed that Alam walked from behind the police line to join the swelling crowd in the Will Rogers Corridor near Statuary Hall.
Alam immediately started trouble, shouting so loudly that an elderly man slapped him on the side of the head and told him, “Shut up!”
Alam photo-bombed journalist Tayler Hansen’s livestream inside the Capitol.
“This is insane, bro. We’d love to f***ing revolutionize the whole world!” Alam said. “It’s the repetition of what happened decades and centuries ago, and it’s repeating itself. It’s going down right now!”
Alam was arrested by the FBI on Jan. 30, 2021, in Denver, Pennsylvania, after he spent weeks on the the lam. When agents raided his room at the Penn Amish Motel, they reportedly found more than $5,600 in antiques stolen from Stoudt’s Antique Mall in nearby Adamstown. In August 2021, he was charged by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with one count of burglary and one count of theft by unlawful taking of movable property.
The Pennsylvania case was held in abeyance for more than three years while the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted Alam for Jan. 6 crimes. It’s not clear if he will ever face the Pennsylvania charges. According to the criminal docket, Alam’s burglary case is listed as “closed.” There is no indication in court records of a dismissal or other case disposition.
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