N.H. man arrested for alleged actions on Jan. 6, including stealing a U.S. Capitol Police helmet

Crime

Richard Zachary Ackerman, 22, of Salem, New Hampshire, was arrested for his participation in the Capitol siege.

A New Hampshire man allegedly stole a U.S Capitol Police helmet and assaulted an officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Richard Zachary Ackerman, 22, of Salem, New Hampshire, was arrested for his participation in the Capitol siege and charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; civil disorder; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and theft of government property, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia’s office.

Ackerman appeared in court in the District of New Hampshire on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

According to the release, Ackerman was among the mob that illegally gathered on the Capitol grounds, including on the lower west terrace and near an archway and tunnel that leads into the Capitol building.

Prosecutors allege that he found a U.S. Capitol Police helmet, put it on, and later, while wearing it, threw a water bottle toward the entrance to the tunnel, where a line of police officers was located.

Prosecutors say that Ackerman called the helmet his “war trophy” and brought it back home to New Hampshire. The FBI later recovered the helmet from his home in June 2022, according to the release.

Authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol, including close to 350 people charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI has arrested 25 people from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.