A man who set himself ablaze outside the New York City court where former US president Donald Trump is standing trial has died of his injuries, police said early Saturday. Police had previously identified the man as Maxwell Azzarello from St. Augustine, Florida.
Witnesses described seeing him throw pamphlets into the air on Friday just before dousing himself with an unspecified liquid and setting himself on fire in a park near the courthouse. The man, who wrote an online manifesto before self-immolating Friday afternoon, was rushed to treatment. Later a spokesman for the New York Police Department confirmed early Saturday that the man had died.
‘My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an…’
US media reports said that Azzarello was a self-described “investigative researcher” who spewed conspiracy theories about the “elites” in a lengthy manifesto. “My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” the lengthy manifesto reads. “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.”
According to the New York Post, the thirty-seven-year-old Florida man tossed a stack of pamphlets into the air, which included links to a Substack newsletter apparently authored by the self-immolator called “The Ponzi Papers” moments before he doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze in Collect Pond Park. The nearly 2,700-word manifesto he left behind was filled with conspiracy theories ranging from cryptocurrency to COVID and former President Bill Clinton.
‘Totalitarian con’
Azzarello claimed to be an investigative researcher, aiming to draw attention to what he termed a “totalitarian con” orchestrated by government elites. He accused both Republicans and Democrats of fabricating crises to push for a fascist takeover. “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,” he wrote. “These claims sound like fantastical conspiracy theory, but they are not. They are proof of conspiracy. If you investigate this mountain of research, you will prove them too.”
‘To my friends and family’
Azzarello’s rambling manifesto also mentioned references to popular culture, including The Simpsons, and alleged connections between high-profile figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. He voiced his suspicions about a secret kleptocracy and predicted an impending fascist coup. Azzarello’s family was unaware of his trip to New York City, where he appeared outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse holding a sign proclaiming a fascist coup involving Trump and Biden. “To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict. Because these words are true, this is an act of revolution,” he wrote.
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