A Virginia man who taunted police inside the U.S. Capitol and smashed out the windowpane near where Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot on Jan. 6, 2021, was found guilty on Sept. 12 of 10 criminal charges at the close of a federal trial in Washington.
Zachary Jordan Alam, 31, of Centreville, Virginia, now faces what could be one of the longest prison terms of any Jan. 6 defendant. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.
Mr. Alam was found guilty by a federal jury of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, obstructing officers during a civil disorder, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering or 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. Alam became one of the most recognized faces of Jan. 6, 2021, when he took a black helmet and smashed the windows in the entry to the Speaker’s Lobby just outside the House of Representatives chamber. He was standing just feet from Ms. Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, when she was shot by a police officer.
Chaos in the Speaker’s Lobby
Video captured by at least four journalists shows Mr. Alam loudly berating Capitol Police Sgt. Timothy Lively, Officer Kyle Yetter, and Officer Christopher Lanciano, who were attempting to guard the two entry doors leading into the Speaker’s Lobby.
Ms. Babbitt, a 14-year Air Force veteran who was shot to death by Capitol Police Capt. Michael Byrd, tried to prevent Mr. Alam from continuing his loud agitation between 2:33 and 2:45 p.m., video evidence shows.
Ms. Babbitt confronted Mr. Alam, leaning in between him and one of the police officers guarding the doors. Mr. Alam turned away from Ms. Babbitt and punched a window to the side of the officer’s head. Ms. Babbitt winced just before Mr. Alam struck the window with his right hand, video shows.
After Mr. Alam used the helmet to smash out an entire pane of tempered glass in a window to the right of the doors, Ms. Babbitt spun him around by the backpack and delivered a left hook to his nose, knocking off his glasses. She then climbed into the window frame and was shot by Capt. Byrd.
Slapped in the Head
The Speaker’s Lobby wasn’t the only location where Mr. Alam caused chaos on Jan. 6. Earlier in the day, at a police line on a lower floor, his bellowing so annoyed a man in his 70s that he slapped Mr. Alam in the side of the head and shouted, “Shut up!”Mr. Alam’s trial began with jury selection on Sept. 6 and 7. Deliberations began on Sept. 11. Just before 3 p.m. on Sept. 12, the jury foreperson sent a note to U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich that the jury had reached unanimous verdicts on all charges.
Mr. Alam was arrested on Jan. 30, 2021, at the Penn Amish Motel in Denver, Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said on Jan. 6, Mr. Alam entered the Capitol at 2:17 p.m. through a broken window at the Senate Wing Door.
“During the time the defendant was in the Capitol Building prior to eventually arriving at the Speaker’s Lobby Doors, he went to the fourth floor, where he kicked open a closed door, then worked his way down to the third floor, where he threw a section of velvet rope from a station down at officers a floor below, then walked down steps where officers were posted and then turned and ran from them,” prosecutors wrote in a September filing.
Defense attorney Steven Metcalf argued that the obstruction of an official proceeding charge shouldn’t apply to his client.
“The defense of Mr. Alam is that the ’shooting,‘ regardless of proper or improper officer conduct, caused the delay in the ’official proceedings,'” Mr. Metcalf wrote in a court filing. “Such is vital because during the course of this trial [it] has been inferred to now have been based on Mr. Alam’s personal actions.”
Mr. Metcalf said his client got caught up in the madness of the day.
“You see him hit these windows. But I don’t even think that he knew why he was hitting these windows,” Mr. Metcalf said. “He didn’t know who was directly behind there. He—again, he’s swept up into something much bigger than him. Should he have done that? No. But nobody knew what was going on at that point in time. The officers didn’t know who was back there.”
The notebooks, which include daily to-dos starting on Jan. 4, 2021, include things like: “delete pics on FB,” “open new bank account,” “shave pits,” “consolidate crypto,” “where’s weed,” and “reallocate funds to decentralized assets,” according to a PDF copy of notebook pages filed by federal prosecutors.
The notebooks also contain information about a video that included the following bullet points: “Certify your American-ness,” “Why I did what I did. Explanation,” “Call out Trump,” and “What we must do as a people.”
The entry for Jan. 11, 2021, includes a sketch of the layout of the Capitol showing the Rotunda, the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives.
On the opposite page, written in red ink, were the words: “How are you so patriotic? It’s b/c I love America, b/c of American-made trucks and God-made country.”
The page also included the words “Speaker’s Lobby” and “Bicameral legislature.”
The Jan. 10 listing includes an instruction to “turn on phone,” “buy crypto from cash app,” “turn off phone, put in plastic bag,” “put in tire,” and “stash tire.”
