Max Azzarello, the Florida man who set himself on fire Friday outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump's hush-money trial was taking place, has died from his injuries, police reported.
He was declared dead at a local hospital, the NYPD told the Associated Press early Saturday.
Azzarello, 37, doused himself with an accelerant and set himself ablaze as reporters nearby covered alternate juror selection in the Trump trial.
Bystanders raced to the scene outdoors to help Azzarello in a section of College Pond Park across from the courthouse desginated for protests during the trial. Emergency medical workers rushed him on a stretcher to a nearby hospital as smoke still hung in the air.
The St. Augustine resident was identified by a high ranking NYPD official, the New York Times reported, noting that Azzarello was at the courthouse the day before, holding a sign displaying a web address which identified him as a "investigative researcher," and featured pamplets reading: "I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial."
His last Instagram post before the tragedy read:"I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you," Newsweek reported.
Azzarello's family didn't know he had left Florida to travel to the Manhattan courthouse, the New York Post reported.
Investigators collected flyers Azzarello threw into the air before setting himself ablaze, a senior law enforcement official told CNN. A memnber of the CNN team in the area reported that one of the flyers read in part: "NYU is a mob front" — and listed allegations of wrongdoings at the university.
The flyers also included links to a Substack manifesto, noted Newsweek.
The Post reported that Azzarello's nearly 2,700-page conspiracy-riddled statement declared at one point: "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."
The tragedy was shown on CNN as it happened, with anchor Laura Coates initially reporting on the Trump trial outside the courthouse.
She first told viewers that there was an active shooter nearby, then quickly corrected that a "man has set fire to himself." CNN cameras then turned to show the flames across the street.
"A man has emblazoned himself outside the courthouse," Coates said, and reported the smell of burning flesh.
"There is chaos and it is happening," she added.
Just minutes after the full jury was selected in Donald Trump's New York hush money criminal trial, someone appears to have set themself on fire outside the courthouse, per CNN's @thelauracoates. pic.twitter.com/skRj1dXD9t
— The Recount (@therecount) April 19, 2024
