WASHINGTON — A Marine Corps veteran and anti-war demonstrator now faces federal charges alleging he assaulted police during protests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to D.C. in July.
Zachary Allen Kam, 24, of Chicago, was arrested Thursday on two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police during protests at Columbus Circle on July 24. Kam had previously been charged in D.C. Superior Court with two misdemeanor counts of assaulting police under local code. He now faces the same felony assault charge used in hundreds of Jan. 6 cases involving alleged attacks on police.
According to charging documents, while U.S. Park Police officers were attempting to arrest a protester who was pulling down a flag from one of the flagpoles in Columbus Circle, Kam approached an officer from behind, grabbed his vest and pulled them to the ground. Kam allegedly then dragged the officer several feet, causing him to suffer scrapes to his right and elbow and bruising to both knees.
Kam allegedly then escaped into the crowd, but returned less than a minute later and allegedly grabbed a second officer’s vest and dragged him to the ground. Investigators said he then ran off again.
Police put out a description of Kam on the radio, including the camouflaged vest he was wearing and distinctive tattoo on his left forearm. A man matching Kam’s description was spotted hours later at John Marshall Park, near the federal courthouse, and stopped to confirm his identity. Police obtained his Illinois driver’s license information at that time before placing him under arrest.
Kam was expected to make his initial appearance before a just in the U.S. District for the Northern District of Illinois Thursday afternoon. His case was assigned to U.S. District Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui for an eventual hearing in D.C.
Kam’s arrest is the second in a week related to the protests of Netanyahu’s speech before Congress in July. On Friday, the FBI arrested Zaid Mohammad Madhawi, a pro-Palestinian protest organizer from Henrico County, Virginia, on a charge of misdemeanor destruction of government property for allegedly defacing the statue in Columbus Circle with pro-Hamas graffiti. Prosecutors also charged a Maryland woman, 20-year-old Isabella Giordano, of Towson, with the same charge in September for allegedly vandalizing several pieces of federal property during the protests.
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division and the U.S. Park Police’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Unit.