Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies

The man who set himself on fire near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where 12 members of a jury were selected for the criminal trial of former US President Donald Trump, has died.

Authorities who reported to the location identified the man as Maxwell Azzarello, from St Augustine, Florida. They found that Azzarello lingered outside the criminal courthouse earlier this week, and doused himself with accelerant at around at around 1:35 pm (local time) on Friday, The New York Times reported.

Maxwell Azzarello was “declared deceased by hospital staff”, police told NBC News in a phone call on Saturday.

The incident took place at Collect Pond Park, across the street from the building and two dozen police officers arrived at the location running and climbing over barricades to extinguish the blaze.

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The man was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to a nearby hospital. The authorities told local reporters that the burns were so severe that he was “unlikely to survive”.

Azzarello threw pamphlets before burning himself

Police who are investigating the matter told local journalists that Azzarello threw pamphlets in the air before setting himself alight. It was later informed that these pamphlets comprised anti-government conspiracy theories.

“At 1:30 this afternoon we observed a male walk into the centre of the park, he started shuffling around his clothes, opened up a book bag, took numerous pieces of paper, threw the pamphlets throughout the park and then pulled out a canister and put some kind of liquid on himself, and he lights himself on fire,” Jeffrey Maddrey, chief of the New York police department, told reporters at an afternoon press conference.

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“Civilians, court officers, members of the police department, they run into the park, they make efforts to put him out, they use their coats, they use fire extinguishers. Eventually, fire department of New York responders were able to extinguish the fire," he added.

Three NYPD officers were treated for smoke inhalation

During the press conference, Maddrey also mentioned that three officers of NYPD and one court officer had been treated for smoke inhalation.

Azzarello, who was born in 1987 arrived in New York earlier this week, he was “alive and intubated” in the burn centre of New York’s Cornell Medical Center.

Joseph Kenny, NYPD’s chief of detectives, said the pamphlets and social media posts made by Azzarello indicated that the trial was a backdrop to Azzarello’s action, rather than a reason for it.

“The pamphlet seems to be propaganda-based, almost like a conspiracy-theory-type of the pamphlet, some information in regards to Ponzi schemes, and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are a front for the mob,” he said.

Kenny also mentioned that Azzarello had no criminal history in New York and was not previously known to the authorities. Tarik Sheppard, the deputy commissioner of the NYPD also noted that they don’t believe Trump and his supporters were the focus of Azzarello’s actions.

“We do not believe this was targeting any particular person or a particular group. We just right now labelled him as a sort of conspiracy theorist and we’ll go from there, but the investigation will continue,” he said.

What was happening inside the courtroom?

According to The New York Times, the incident occurred while Judge Juan Merchan was recessing for lunch on the third day of the former president’s hush money trials. Shortly after a full jury of 12 and six alternates were seated.

As per the reports, Merchan was unaware of the events that transpired outside the courtroom. He told the newly selected jurors that opening statements were set for Monday at 9:30 am (local time) and recessed the hearing for lunch.

According to CNN, a person believed to be a Secret Service agent walked up to Trump inside the courtroom and spoke quietly in his ear. It is believed that Trump was briefed about the incident.