A Capitol rioter who was filmed breaking the windows where a Trump supporter was fatally shot was arrested after a relative told on him, FBI says
- Zachary Alam, 29, was arrested in Denver, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
- Alam is accused of breaking the windows a rioter was trying to crawl through when she was fatally shot.
- Alam's criminal complaint said a "family member" helped the FBI track him down.
A man who was filmed shattering a window into the Speaker's Lobby during the Capitol riot was arrested after a relative sent a tip about him, the FBI said.
Zachary Alam, 29, was arrested on Saturday in Denver, Pennsylvania, at the Penn Amish Motel, WHTM reported.
He faces charges of 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 a restricted building or grounds; and violent entry and disorderly conduct, according to the criminal complaint.
The FBI agent who compiled the complaint said they saw footage of a man, whom they identified as Alam, entering the Capitol during the riot through a shattered window in the Senate Wing.
He forced his way past Capitol Police officers and "appeared agitated" as he made his way through the building, at one point getting close to an officer's face, the complaint said.
At the glass doors to the Speaker's Lobby - the room outside the House chamber - Alam and others came face-to-face with officers guarding the doors, the complaint said.
The FBI agent said Alam was "observed repeatedly punching the glass panels of the doors immediately behind the officers, causing the glass to splinter."
While throwing punches, Alam "pushed his body up against one of the Capitol Police officers guarding the door," the complaint said.
"Seconds after the officers stepped away from the doorway," Alam began "kicking the glass panels" and then smashing them with a helmet he had taken from another person in the crowd, the complaint said.
He "violently struck the middle glass panel repeatedly with the helmet, further shattering the window," the complaint said.
The complaint noted that chants of "Break it down!" and "Let's f---ing go!" could be heard in the background of these videos.
Ashli Babbitt was later fatally shot while trying to climb through one of the shattered windows. The complaint said Alam could be seen in footage of that shooting.
The FBI agent said they were able to track Alam down after receiving an anonymous tip from a person who identified themselves as a "family member" of Alam's on January 14. The relative gave the FBI details about Alam's identity, which agents used to find his driver's-license photo, which matched the man in the videos from the riot, the agent said.
The criminal complaint said the relative told the FBI that Alam had called them from a new phone number after the riot and wouldn't say where he was. The complaint described the relative as saying that Alam told them 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 relative also told the FBI that after the riot Alam asked other relatives if he could stay with them, saying the FBI was looking for him.
Public records showed that Alam was being held at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.