Around 1.30pm local time a man entered a park outside the New York courthouse, where Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial is taking place, and set himself on fire.
The horrific incident lasted several minutes before the flames were extinguished by police officers and court staff.
The man was later identified by the New York Police Department (NYPD) as 37-year-old Max Azzarello. Shortly before the incident he had posted a manifesto-style post to media platform Substack in which he warned impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
Here’s what we know:
Who is the victim?
In his lengthy post Mr Azzarello described himself as an “investigative researcher”.
Police said that Mr Azzarello’s drivers license showed he was born in 1987 and was a native of St Augustine, Florida. A registered Democrat, he attended the University of North Carolina.
He is believed to have arrived in New York at some point between April 13 and April 19, though family members who spoke to police said they were unaware that he was in the city.
Mr Azzarello was unknown to police prior to the incident and did not have a criminal history in New York, police said.
Following the incident Ms Azzarello was described as being in a “very critical condition”, but alive, and being treated at the Cornell Burns Unit in New York.
His beliefs
Mr Azzarello had a long history of posting conspiracy theories and railing against the rich and powerful, according to NYPD officials, who had begun to comb through his social media profiles.
In his Substack post he said that the act of self-immolation was “an extreme act of protest” over a “totalitarian con” and warned of an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
“To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict,” he wrote.
Elsewhere in the lengthy and somewhat rambling post, Azzarello also made reference to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, cryptocurrency, and episodes of The Simpsons.
At one point he comapred himself to Lisa Simpson in the episode Lisa the Iconoclast, writing that he had been “desperately trying to get friends, family, and the public to believe the proof of a totalitarian con I’m trying to show them.
“They’ve turned away with hostility, apathy, disbelief, and partisanship.”
The incident
Police said that Mr Azzarello had not breached any security protocols before the incident, as the park – Collect Pond Park – was open to the public at the time.
Witnesses described how he had walked into the park alone, taken off his jacket and poured gas over his head before lighting himself up.
Seconds before setting himself on fire, he tossed a stack of colorful pamphlets into the air, which are believed to link back to his online Substack post.
A man who witnessed the shocking incident, which occurred mere minutes after the final jurors were selected in the former president’s criminal case, an identified himself as Dave, was visibily shaken.
“Papers clattered on the ground and that caught our attention well my attention anyway and I kinda wondered ‘well what are those papers’,” Dave told The Independent’s Alex Woodward. “But then he pulled out a can and poured it over himself.”
Dave said people around him were “horrified” and became screaming. The incident happened so quickly, nobody was able to stop it.
“It’s awful to see that.”