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A Capitol rioter who attacked police on January 6, 2021 and smashed the glass that fellow rioter Ashli Babbitt crawled through before she was shot and killed has once again been arrested, this time for theft.
Zachary J Alam, 33 has been accused of breaking into a home this month while the residents were still there, the Washington Post reports.
He is among the first Capitol riot convicts to face new charges after receiving a pardon from President Donald Trump at the start of his second term.
Alam, a resident of Centreville, was in jail for more than four years for assaulting police officers defending the U.S. Capitol during the failed January 6 insurrection. He was sentenced to an eight-year prison term after being convicted on seven felonies and three misdemeanors, including assault of police officers and obstructing police during a civil disorder.
After Trump's inauguration, Alam demanded a pardon and reparations for the time he spent in prison.
“I will not accept a second-class pardon,” Alam said at the time. “I want a full pardon with all the benefits that come with it, including full compensation.”
Alam has the distinction of having one of the longest sentences of any Capitol riot convict. That sentence was passed down by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who noted Alam's "lack of remorse" for his crimes.
“The actions of Mr. Alam on Jan. 6 were among the most violent and aggressive of the Jan. 6 defendants,” she said. The judge went on to say that “he was by far the loudest, the most combative and the most violent of the Jan. 6 rioters.”
Alam received his pardon and was released from jail, but now he may be headed back.
On May 9, Henrico County police arrested Alam in a neighborhood just east of Richmond, the Virginia state capital. Around 8:30 pm that night, homeowners claim that a man they did not know broke into their home through a back door and took several of their belongings.
The residents told police they saw the alleged burglar and asked him to leave their home.
Police found Alam in a nearby neighborhood and took him into custody. He was charged with felony residential burglary and misdemeanor vandalism.
Alam has prior convictions of auto theft, fleeing the scene of an accident, petty larceny, and drunk driving, according to state officials.
Prosecutors are seeking a lengthy prison sentence for Alam due to his prior convictions — including his Capitol riot conviction — and said he was among the first to enter the Capitol during the attack.
During the riot, he broke an interior window using a helmet. After he broke the window, fellow rioter Babbitt climbed through the opening and was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer.
While the shooting was ruled justified, Babbitt's family sued anyway and reportedly received a $5 million settlement from the government, according to the Washington Post.
Alam insisted he thought he was "saving the country" by trying to disrupt the nation's democratic power transfer.
“I know that breaking windows is against the law,” Alam said during his sentencing. “But I believed in my heart I was doing the right thing. Sometimes you have to break the rules to do what’s right. … Some J6ers did violence, but only because they thought they were saving the country in the process.”
Other Capitol riot convicts have had run-ins with the law since their pardons. Matthew Huttle, one of the Capitol riot defendants, was pulled over six days after Trump's mass clemency and — fearing a return to prison — refused to comply with the orders of a Jasper County sheriff's deputy. He scurried into his truck and appeared to be reaching for a gun, saying he was going to shoot himself, but the deputy shot him first and killed him.
A loaded handgun was found in Huttle's vehicle.
In a less dramatic case, Brent John Holdridge, 59, of Arcata, California, was charged with stealing copper and tools. He previously had been charged with non-violent crimes relating to the Capitol riot.
The copper was valued at tens of thousands of dollars, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office.
The Independent has contacted Henrico County Police.
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