The man burned for several minutes in full view of television cameras that were set up outside the courthouse, where the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is being held.
“I see a totally charred human being,” a CNN reporter said on the air.
Officials said the man survived. “The victim is in critical condition but is alive and intubated,” said New York Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Witnesses said the man pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air before he doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire. One of those pamphlets, titled “The True History of the World (Haunted Carnival Edition),” included references to “evil billionaires”.
Officials said the man, who they said lived until recently in St. Augustine, Florida, did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial.
“Right now we are labeling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist and we are going from there,” Tarrik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the New York Police Department, said at a news conference.
Police identified the man who set himself on fire on Friday as Max Azzarello of St. Augustine, Florida.
It is widely known that the so-called conspiracy theorists consider Trump as their only beacon of light. While being able to bring down the alleged uniparty deep state only so much as a single person, he is still, what most consider, the only hope. It is likely that the self-igniter chose to do it in front of Trump’s trial, as the trials are widely thought to be a personal hunt to bring former president Trump down, on top of the obvious publicity from the news cameras on site.
