Onlookers shouted as fire consumed the man, who had flung leaflets into the air before setting himself on fire. He was transferred to the hospital and died some hours later.
On Friday afternoon, a man set fire to himself near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where jurors were being selected for former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial.
The man, who had been waiting outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse earlier this week, doused himself with accelerant at roughly 1:35 p.m. in Collect Pond Park, across the street from the courtroom. Onlookers screamed and bolted, and the man was quickly enveloped in bright orange flames. He flung fliers promoting anti-government conspiracy theories into the air before burning himself on fire.
People rushed to put out the flames, but the heat could be felt from a mile.
After a minute or two, scores of police officers arrived, rushing about and climbing over barricades to put out the fire. The man was placed into an ambulance and taken to a hospital burn unit. He died Friday night.
The man was identified as Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Florida. Mr. Azzarello stood outside the courthouse on Thursday, holding a placard with the address of a website where the same leaflets were uploaded. The top post on the website reads, “I have set myself on fire outside the Trump Trial.”
Mr. Azzarello traveled throughout Lower Manhattan earlier this week, displaying a sign critical of New York University in Washington Square Park on Wednesday and then moving to Collect Pond Park on Thursday.
Mr. Azzarello held up numerous placards in the park on Thursday, and at one point shouted, “Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!” to a crowd of reporters. One of his banners stated that Mr. Trump and President Biden were “about to fascist coup us.”
In an interview that day, he stated that his critical views of the American government were influenced by his studies on Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire and political provocateur who is a significant campaign donor, as well as cryptocurrency.
Mr. Azzarello stated that he had moved from Washington Square Park because he anticipated that with the cold weather, more people would be outside the courtroom.
“Trump’s in on it,” Mr. Azzarello said Thursday. “It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”
Mr. Azzarello arrived in New York City sometime after April 13, according to police, and his family in St. Augustine had no idea where he was until after the incident. While Mr. Azzarello was recently in Florida, he had contacts in New York City and worked for Representative Tom Suozzi during his 2013 Nassau County executive campaign on Long Island.
On Thursday, a guy at a Brooklyn home who may be Mr. Azarello’s family declined to comment.
However, Mr. Azzarello’s behavior appears to have been increasingly irregular during the last year. He was arrested three times in Florida in 2023 on misdemeanor crimes, and he announced on social media in August that he had just spent three days in a psychiatric facility.
Later that month, while dining at the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, he hurled a glass of wine at a framed autograph from former President Bill Clinton. He returned to the hotel two days later, on August 21, stripped down to his underpants and shouted profanities at guests while blaring music over a speaker.
Three days later, police detained him for defacing and damaging signs for various businesses. He removed a pest control sign from the yard of one establishment, which cautioned passers-by to keep children and pets away for their own safety. In his statement to the cops, he said that “the pest control company was there to exterminate children and dogs.”
Mr. Azzarello’s mug photo shows him putting his tongue out.
In addition to his website, Mr. Azzarello was active on social media, disseminating anti-government books via Instagram. Prior to the spring of 2022, the most of his internet articles were about his trips and family, and he mentioned that his mother died in April 2022 from complications of chronic obstructive lung disease.
About a year later, he tweeted a photo of what appeared to be his Covid-19 vaccination card, vandalized with the words “Super Ponzi” and the Bitcoin symbol.
People who watched the fire were taken aback when they saw Mr. Azzarello, who was in an area of the park intended for Trump fans, fling the pamphlets into the air, followed by flames shooting into the sky. Mr. Azzarello, who was dressed in pants and a dark gray T-shirt, collapsed amid the flames.
Most officers who responded to the fire on Thursday fled in the direction of the courthouse, which is a few hundred feet across the street; several struggled to reach Mr. Azzarello due to steel barricades in the park.
Al Baker, a court system spokesman, stated that the trial timetable would not be affected, despite the fact that one court official had been sent to the hospital due to smoke inhalation.
Fred Gates, 60, said he was riding his bike through the park when he stopped to observe the Trump fans and noticed Mr. Azzarello about to set himself on fire. Mr. Gates initially assumed it was a trick or a show until he noticed the flames.
Another witness, civil rights lawyer Gideon Oliver, claimed he observed flames billowing from the park and a court officer coming out a building with a fire extinguisher.
“When I saw and smelled the smoke I thought someone, I assumed one of the pro-Trump protesters, had lit a fire in the park,” Mr. Oliver went on to say. “When I saw police and court officers running, I then thought it might have been a bomb.”
Mr. Azzarello stood tall, pouring the accelerant on himself and holding a flame at chest level. As those closest to him ran, others shouted out, realizing what he was about to do.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.