NYPD: Man Who Set Himself on Fire Outside Trump Courthouse is Alive and in Critical Condition

The New York Police Department provided updates on the man who lit himself on fire outside a Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s trial is taking place, saying that the man was still alive and in critical condition.

Trump has spent the week in a Manhattan courtroom as he faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records regarding alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — a historic first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president that will now be marked by this stunning incident.

Friday afternoon, multiple media outlets were outside the courthouse when the man poured some sort of accelerant on himself and lit himself on fire, horrifying onlookers as first responders rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire. The man was put on a stretcher and taken to an area hospital in an ambulance.

The NYPD has confirmed the man’s identity as Max Azzarello, born 1987 and from St. Augustine, Florida. Various social media profiles that allegedly belong to Azzarello also say he most recently lived in St. Augustine. A manifesto allegedly written by Azzarello was posted online that included wide-ranging conspiracy theories about the government, prominent universities, the Covid pandemic, cryptocurrency, and other topics. He may have been having mental health problems:

Mediaite contacted a source who was friends with a relative of the man who also confirmed Azzarello’s identity and described him as someone who had developed “mental health issues.”

“He was a really good kid who got really far down socialist rabbit holes,” said the source, who added that Azzarello had worked as a grassroots Democratic organizer. “He was just a really decent kid, like a really well meaning guy,” the source recalled, describing Azzarello’s political views when the source knew him as “very old school hippie.”

NYPD Public Information Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard introduced Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, who described how Azzarello had entered the park directly opposite of the courthouse at 1:3o pm ET, and walk to the center of the park, where he started “shuffling around his clothes” and opened up a book bag to take out pamphlets that he threw around the park.

“He pulls out a canister, and pours some kind of liquid on themselves, a liquid we believe is an accelerant,” Maddrey continued. “And he lights himself on fire,” and “takes a couple of steps while he’s on fire, then eventually falls onto a police barrier and falls down to the ground.”

Maddrey described how civilians and NYPD officers ran into the park and “make efforts to put him out, they use their coats, they use fire extinguishers.”

FDNY responded to the scene, said Maddrey, and were able to extinguish the fire and Azzarello was taken to the Cornell Burn Center. “Right now, he’s there in critical condition.”

Maddrey then introduced a fire commissioner who said that Azzarello was “in critical condition, but is alive and intubated” at the burn unit. She added that there were several police officers and a court officer who had “minor injuries from their exposure to the fire,” but they were all “fine” and “stable,” categorized as “green tags,” which indicates a minor injury. Fire marshals were on the scene to help conduct the investigation.

An NYPD detective then came to the microphone to report that the man’s name was Maxwell Azzarello, and he was born in 1987 with a driver’s license showing an address in St. Augustine, Florida.

The detective continued that they had already spoken to other witnesses and family members and found out that Azzarello “arrived in New York sometime earlier in the week,” and as of April 13 his car was confirmed in St. Augustine, so “between the 13th and today he arrived.”

“We spoke to family members today, they were unaware that he was even in New York,” the detective said, and added that the accelerant Azzarello used “appears to be some kind of alcohol-based substance that’s used for cleaning.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.