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A pro-Palestinian demonstrator who went viral over the summer for spray-painting “Hamas is comin” on the side of a Christopher Columbus statue in Washington, D.C. was arrested Friday.
Zaid Mohammad Mahdawi, 26, was taken into custody by FBI agents in Henrico, Virginia, according to an arrest warrant return filed in D.C. federal court. Mahdawi does not yet have an attorney listed in court records, and a phone number listed in Mahdawi’s name was out of service on Friday.
According to a complaint unsealed Friday, Mahdawi was identified to authorities by a gym buddy, as well as a local police officer who had crossed paths socially with him “hundreds of times.”
The events leading up to Mahdawi’s arrest took place July 24, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in D.C. to give a speech at the U.S. Capitol. The Israeli leader’s appearance sparked raucous protests across the city, including a permitted rally at the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain, across from Union Station, D.C.’s main train hub.
At about 3:30 pm., as some chanted, “Netanyahu, you can’t hide. You’re committing genocide,” others cheered on a young man clambering up the plinth of the Columbus statue.
Dressed in black pants, a red shirt, white Nikes, a red-and-white keffiyeh around his neck, and a piece of green fabric concealing his nose and the lower part of his face, the man raised a white can and began scrawling, in tall red letters, his support for Hamas, according to the criminal complaint.
Although more than 25 people were arrested that day, the spray-painter got away. But, the complaint explains, the National Park Service, which has jurisdiction over the Columbus memorial, released a bulletin on July 30, seeking information on “five individuals who engaged in criminal activity” during Netanyahu’s visit. One of the images showed the suspect, who had not yet been identified, defacing the Columbus statue, the complaint states.
The same day that the bulletin was issued, an informant contacted the Park Police with a tip, the complaint goes on.
“Witness-1 stated that they believed the individual in the bulletin (Suspect-1) went to their gym in Richmond, Virginia,” the complaint continues, noting that the Park Police promptly shared the information with the FBI.
On August 6, FBI agents spoke by phone to Witness-1, who said the suspect was a regular gym-goer and drove a white sedan, according to the complaint. Agents staked out the location and eventually spotted a vehicle matching the description. The complaint states that law enforcement ran the license plate, which showed the car was registered to Mahdawi’s father.
The agents then queried a law enforcement database, got Mahdawi’s full name, and pulled his info from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the complaint states. Mahdawi’s driver’s license photo “appeared to be the same individual in the [Park Police] bulletin,” the complaint says.
Investigators also combed through other information they could find on Mahdawi, and saw that he had been arrested at demonstrations in Richmond in December 2023 and April 2024, according to the complaint.
In May, the Richmond Police Department allegedly snapped a photo of Mahdawi sitting on top a mailbox at another demonstration. “In the photo, Mahdawi wore the same shoes that he is pictured wearing on July 24, 2024,” the complaint states.
WItness-1 contacted the FBI again on August 30, and said they had seen Mahdawi at the gym, according to the complaint. “Witness-1 said that Suspect-1 was wearing shoes that matched the shoes worn by the individual depicted in the bulletin,” the complaint says.
During the course of the investigation, agents learned that an officer with the Richmond PD knew Mahdawi personally, having met him some five years ago “at a religious gathering,” the complaint states. Since then, the cop said he has interacted socially with Mahdawi “hundreds of times.” When agents showed the officer a picture of the man atop the Columbus statue, the officer confirmed it was Mahdawi, according to the complaint.
Mahdawi is facing one count of destruction of government property under $1,000, a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in prison. The complaint shows the total cost to clean up and repair the damage that day, which the feds say included not just the spray-painted Columbus statue but also “flags pulled down from the flag poles,” came to $11,282.23.
