A man set himself on fire Sunday afternoon outside the Israeli Embassy in Northwest in an apparent act of political protest.
Metropolitan Police said the man was taken to the hospital in critical condition around 1 p.m. after his body was consumed by the flames. He died Monday morning, The Associated Press said.
Uniformed Secret Service officers had already extinguished the fire by the time crew members with D.C. Fire and EMS arrived, according to fire department officials.
Police said a “suspicious vehicle” that was thought to be connected to the burn victim was also investigated by MPD’s explosives team at the scene on the 3500 block of International Drive Northwest.
Authorities said no hazardous materials were found inside the car.
No Israeli embassy staffers were injured during the commotion, according to an embassy spokeswoman.
The Secret Service spokesman said the agency’s officers originally responded to a report of a person experiencing a mental health emergency by the embassy.
The man appeared to livestream his self-immolation to protest the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, according to a now-deleted video that was viewed by The New York Times.
The man — who was dressed in fatigues and identified himself as an Air Force officer — said during the video that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide,” a reference to Palestinian civilian deaths in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
He then said he was “about to engage in an extreme act of protest.”
The man proceeded to splash a clear liquid over his body and yell “Free Palestine!” before lighting himself on fire, according to the Times report on video.
Officers who were already outside the embassy and talking with the man raced to put out the flames. It took authorities about a minute to completely extinguish the fire.
Twitch, the streaming platform where the clip was posted, scrubbed the video shortly afterward for violating the site’s guidelines.
In December, a person self-immolated outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta. Police recovered a Palestinian flag at the scene and described the incident as “an extreme act of political protest.”
After the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians, the Jewish state declared war on Hamas.
Roughly 29,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s subsequent attacks, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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