Fire extinguishers (R) are left in the park across from the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City after a man reportedly set himself on fire during the trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump on April 19, 2024 in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
A Florida man set himself on fire Friday outside the New York courthouse where a jury was being assembled for the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump.
The man, identified by police as Max Azzarello, was taken to the Cornell Burn Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he was in very critical condition and was not expected to survive.
“His condition is not good, but right now he is still alive,” a police official said of Azzarello, a St. Augustine resident who is in his mid-30s.
Azzarello set himself on fire in an area across from the Manhattan Supreme Court that is cordoned off to protesters.
Police said he walked into the parking area, opened a book bag and threw paper brochures on the ground before pulling out a canister and pouring out a liquid believed to be an accelerant, then setting himself on fire.
Ed Quinn, a freelance photojournalist who lives in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, said he was standing outside the courthouse when “I heard someone screaming, ‘He’s going to set himself on fire.'”
“I see him deliberately pouring gasoline in his face,” Quinn said, according to NBC News. “He was wearing a gray T-shirt. It soaked his face. It soaked his shirt. Boom, it blew up.”
“Women were begging, screaming, wiping him out, wiping him out,” said Quinn, who said it took about a minute for police to arrive.
Mugshot of Max Azzarello from August 21, 2023.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s Department
The fire’s flames reached 20 feet into the air before police were able to put out the fire with a large fire extinguisher after a smaller fire extinguisher failed to do the job, video showed.
Azzarello’s motives were unknown, but papers containing conspiracy theories were found in his entourage.
“We don’t think he was targeting any particular person or any particular group,” another police official told reporters.
While Azzarello’s LinkedIn profile says he is currently a self-employed “research researcher,” it shows that he previously held positions for a number of organizations, including the nonprofit advocacy group Strong Towns.
Strong Towns President Charles Marohn confirmed in a call with CNBC that Azzarello worked for the group from early 2017 to August 2018. His responsibilities included helping set up the nonprofit’s Salesforce account.
“Today just makes me very sad,” said Marohn. “I hope he gets the help he needs.”
The organization is completely remote, Marohn said, so he has only seen Azzarello in person once or twice. They communicated primarily via email and Slack.
When asked if Azzarello seemed normal or well-adjusted at the time, Marohn said he “actually couldn’t say one or the other.”
“To find out that it’s someone you know… I hope that anyone who is human in this case would just be sad,” Marohn said. “He is human, he deserves our compassion.”
Azzarello filed a lawsuit in April 2023 in Manhattan federal court against a large number of defendants, including the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, various cryptocurrency exchanges and companies, financial firms, New York University, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Mark Cuban Participation in a wide-ranging, decades-long fraud scheme that caused significant financial and psychological harm to Azzarello.
Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed the lawsuit in October after Azzarello, representing himself, failed to respond to an order requiring him to explain why the lawsuit should not be dismissed for lack of legal standing and subject matter jurisdiction.
The last jury seats were filled around the time of the fire. Trump was in the courthouse at the time.
Officials told people in the courtroom, including Trump, that they were free to leave the building, which is located in lower Manhattan, near a federal courthouse, City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Judge Juan Merchan was scheduled to hold a hearing Friday afternoon on the admissibility of Trump’s past behavior as evidence in the trial.
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The area where the incident occurred was packed this week with journalists, protesters, counter-protesters and other passers-by wanting to get a glimpse of the historic site of the trial.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was spotted directly in front of the building.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s presidential campaign, said in a statement Friday: “Because I do not know the motives behind this abhorrent situation, it is difficult to make definitive comments other than to say that we are grateful that it is to the best of our ability There is no one who knows anyone other than the person in question was injured.”
“We also extend our condolences to the traumatized witnesses at the scene and express our deepest gratitude to the amazing first responders of the city of New York for their actions,” Leavitt said. “Today is further evidence that our nation is in deep trouble and that perhaps more than ever, we all need to work to Make America Great Again.”
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2024-04-20 01:52:36
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