Jan. 6 Rioter Has Psychiatric History Including Suicide Attempt, Court Told

Zachary Jordan Alam incites the crowd outside the Speaker's Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Sam Montoya/Special to The Epoch Times

The Virginia man who taunted police inside the U.S. Capitol and smashed several windows near where Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot on Jan. 6 has previously undisclosed psychiatric troubles, including a suicide attempt, that warrant a downward departure from the 11-year prison sentence sought by federal prosecutors, a defense attorney said in a new court filing.

The sentencing for Zachary Jordan Alam, 32, of Centreville, Virginia, was delayed at the last minute on May 6 after his attorney, Steven Metcalf II, disclosed his client’s previously unreported mental illness.

Sentencing for Mr. Alam has already been delayed three times since January. United States District Judge Dabney Friedrich indicated on April 19 that she would not extend the sentencing date, but relented “so that the defendant may obtain records relevant for sentencing,” according to the case docket.

“Specially, we request that this court not upward depart from the guidelines and rather downward depart as Mr. Alam clearly has medical and mental issues which clearly require treatment as opposed to an astronomical prison sentence as the government requests,” Mr. Metcalf wrote in a supplemental filing.

Federal prosecutors had recommended an 11-year prison sentence for Mr. Alam, who was found guilty in a September 2023 jury trial of seven felony and three misdemeanor counts stemming from his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The recommended 136-month prison term represents a six-level upward departure from federal sentencing guidelines.

Mr. Alam placed himself at the center of a violent crowd that gathered in the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby at 2:40 p.m. on Jan. 6. He berated the three U.S. Capitol Police officers guarding the entrance, bumping one officer and repeatedly punching the glass panels behind the officers, video evidence showed.

Ms. Babbitt tried to confront Mr. Alam after his first violent outburst, video showed, but he brushed her aside. His rant included a threat against the officers, “I’m going to [expletive] you up!” according to prosecutors.

After Mr. Alam was handed a black helmet by Christopher Grider, Mr. Alam used it like a cudgel to smash the glass panels in the entry doorway, video evidence showed.

When Mr. Alam punched out the final glass panel near where Ms. Babbitt stood, she spun him around and delivered a left hook to his nose just before she was fatally shot by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, the video showed.

‘Exacerbated the Chaos’

Prosecutors said Mr. Alam’s actions “directly and substantially created a situation where officers were compelled to engage in lethal force, for the first and only time that day.”

In 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 54-page DOJ sentencing memo said. “All the while, Alam’s actions exacerbated the chaos, inflaming the mob overall.”

Zachary Alam (wearing a black helmet) is confronted by a man on his way out of the U.S. Capitol, on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Capitol Police/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Mr. Alam was found guilty in a jury trial on Sept. 12, 2023, of 10 charges: assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; obstructing officers during a civil disorder; destruction of government property; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; act of physical violence in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

Mr. Metcalf said he received new information about Mr. Alam’s mental issues in an April 29 email from Mr. Alam’s mother, Karyn Lynn Alam, 68, of Reading, Pennsylvania. The information was not included in the mandatory pre-sentence report prepared by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, he said.

“Since we spoke last week, I have been thinking a lot about my son, Zachary,” Ms. Alam’s letter said. “Relevant memories have come back to me regarding Zachary and his mental well-being.”

Shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia in 2014, Mr. Alam enrolled in medical school at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine in Dothan, Alabama, his mother wrote. Shortly before leaving for Alabama, Mr. Alam was arrested for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, she said.

After about two months of classes at the Alabama college, Ms. Alam said she was notified that her son had gotten into a fight over a woman at a local bar. Rather than have her son face disciplinary charges before the medical school board, she said, the family decided Mr. Alam should withdraw.

Suicide Attempt

“I was notified by the school that Zachary was found in a bathroom stall with a belt around his neck,” Ms. Alam 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.

“After approximately one week, the psychiatric facility called me to come and get Zachary. I was not informed of any medications that the facility wanted Zachary to continue to take and I was not informed of any further treatment plan,” his mother wrote.

Mr. Alam moved in with his mother, but continued to have substance abuse issues, she said.

Jan. 6 defendant Zachary Alam heads for a staircase on the fourth floor of the U.S. Capitol on his way to the main House entrance. U.S. Capitol Police/Graphic by The Epoch Times

“He did attend AA meetings, but I recall one occasion he came home drunk. It got to the point where I did call 911 to take him to rehab but he refused to go,” Ms. Alam wrote. “At that time, I attended Alanon group meetings to help me cope with Zach and his drinking abuse.”

Ms. Alam said she asked her son to move out of the house in 2015.

“Since that time I have done everything I can to be his mother, and communicate with him as much as possible,” she wrote. “Still to this day I do not know of him being diagnosed with any mental illness, but I do continue to question any potential mental illness not being properly diagnosed.”

Mr. Metcalf said the judge should take this new information into account when crafting a sentence for his client.

“Alam ultimately has unprescribed [sic] medical issues that have not been dealt with, most likely from Alam’s defiance to seek and continue medical help. But help is what Alam needs, not a long-term prison sentence.”

Judge Friedrich ordered the defense to submit a new sentencing recommendation by July 8, with a prosecutors’ reply due by July 12.