A person set himself on fire near the courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s trial is underway.
The scene played out live outside the courthouse on CNN and Fox News on Friday shortly after 1:30 p.m.
Laura Coates, CNN’s chief legal analyst, provided a play-by-play of the gruesome scene as members of law enforcement, who were there to provide security for the trial, rushed to put out the person engulfed in flames. People nearby screamed, and a Fox News journalist reporting live on air repeatedly called for a fire extinguisher.
Ms. Coates said she had seen the man lifting his arm and appearing to pour something on himself, followed quickly by the fire. She said she could smell a chemical accelerant and burning flesh, with the blaze lasting about three minutes and the person’s body appearing to be “charred.”
Video footage appeared to show the man kneeling with his hands behind his head as his body burned while onlookers screamed in horror. The flames were put out after people rushed to him with a fire extinguisher, and emergency responders quickly took the person away on a stretcher.
The New York Post reported police sources have identified the man as Max Azzarello, who appears to have left a manifesto on his Substack feed that says: “I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan.”
“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup,” Mr. Azzarello wrote.
Other posts on his feed included “NYU is a Mob Front,” “How The Simpsons Brainwashed Us,” and “The Rob Lowe Sex Tape - a Jeff Epstein Production.”
The New York Times reported the man was in a section of Collect Pond Park that was sectioned off for supporters of Mr. Trump and that an onlooker said the man threw pamphlets into the air before lighting himself on fire.
The leaflets referenced former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore. They also referenced David Bois, the lawyer who represented Mr. Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount, the newspaper reported.
A reporter with PIX11 said police were investigating a large sign the man was carrying, as well as the possibility that he was carrying pamphlets.
Jury selection had been completed in a courtroom nearby as Mr. Trump’s trial is set to begin on Monday on charges related to hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The events occurred a little over a month after an active-duty U.S. Air Force member set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington and later died.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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