A YouTuber with a controversial history was arrested for the second time this week in the neighborhood of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother Nancy.
Alexander Zabel Jr., 54, was arrested late Thursday afternoon outside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson, Arizona, home while conducting a livestream for his channel CriminalNetwork.
In the livestream, Zabel is sitting on the curb outside Guthrie’s house when deputies pull up and ask him to stand up.
The encounter escalated from there, with the two deputies telling Zabel he is under arrest and then wrestling to control him as he asks repeatedly what he is being arrested for.
One deputy was knocked to the ground and after Zabel was put in cuffs, a third deputy arrived and told him.
“Spit on me and you catch a charge.”
Zabel denied spitting.
The video does show Zabel using a homophobic slur on one officer.
The sheriff’s office said that several neighbors had called to complain about Zabel disrupting the neighborhood, and when sheriff’s deputies arrived he allegedly resisted arrest.
“Deputies made contact with him, and during the arrest process, a PCSD sergeant was knocked to the ground,” the sheriff’s office said.
Zabel was charged with resisting arrest and public nuisance and was kept overnight at the Pima County Adult Detention Complex.
He is expected to face court Friday morning.
This is not the first time Zabel has been arrested outside Nancy Guthrie’s home. He was arrested on Monday with two other YouTubers on suspicion of obstruction of a highway or thoroughfare and public nuisance, the Sheriff’s Department said, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
The Sheriff’s Department also said there would be stricter enforcement in the neighborhood due to complaints.
Zabel was outside Guthrie’s home talking about the 84-year-old’s abduction in February. A masked man was seen on security footage with a gun outside Guthrie’s home on the night of February 2. Her blood was found outside her door, but there has been no trace of her since.
On Thursday, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department also addressed reports that Guthrie might be buried in Mexico.
A group that works to locate missing people in Mexico said they had received a tip claiming that Guthrie is buried in an unmarked grave near the U.S.-Mexico border.
But the sheriff’s office said in a statement that they had not been contacted by the Mexican authorities about the tip.
“We are aware of reports regarding an anonymous tip related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation that was provided to a group in Mexico. At this time, we have not been contacted by Mexican authorities,” the update said.
Guthrie has now been missing for more than five months.
