Inset: Zachary Alam (Henrico County Regional Jail West). Background: Alam during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot (U.S. Attorney's Office).
A convicted Jan. 6 rioter ran afoul of the law again when he broke into a Virginia family's home and spent up to 15 minutes ransacking the place, authorities say.
Zachary Alam, 34, was sentenced this week to serve seven years in prison after being convicted last fall of breaking and entering an occupied home and grand larceny, regional ABC affiliate WRIC reported. The majority of his sentence — an additional 33 years — was suspended by a Henrico County judge.
On May 8, 2025, at about 11 p.m., Alam entered a home in Henrico County through a back door and searched through multiple rooms, stealing personal items, Henrico County police told Law&Crime at the time. After about 10 to 15 minutes inside, Alam was confronted by the family living there.
The defendant reportedly gave excuses as to why he was there and then left. Police were called to the residence, and officers tracked Alam to a nearby neighborhood and arrested him.
Prosecutors talked during the defendant's sentencing about the "trauma" that the family endured and the "loss of some of their possessions," per the local outlet.
But Alam was not unknown to law enforcement officers — at least federal ones.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Alam "was among a mob of rioters illegally gathered on the west lawn of Capitol grounds," the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. He made it into the Capitol building and led the "mob" seeking to push through U.S. Capitol Police officers.
"I'm going to f— you up," he yelled multiple times in the faces of officers as he broke glass and added that he and his fellow rioters "need guns," federal authorities added.
Alam was arrested on Jan. 30, 2021, in Denver, Pennsylvania. On Sept. 12, 2023, he was convicted by a Washington, D.C., jury of eight felonies, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; civil disorder; and destruction of government property.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
However, on the first day of Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025, the president pardoned Alam and 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants.