4 high-profile self-immolation protests in US, abroad
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NEW YORK (PIX11) — Protesters, like the man who set himself on fire outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial, have been driven by climate change, war, and gay rights in other high-profile self-immolation incidents.
Conspiracy theorist Max Azzarello, 37, torched himself in Collect Pond Park across from the Centre Street courthouse in Lower Manhattan at around 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to the NYPD. After officers used coats and fire extinguishers to put out the flames, Azzarello was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and was likely to die, police said.
In a letter sent to PIX11 News, Azzarello identified himself as an investigative researcher and said he set himself on fire to “draw attention to an urgent and important discovery.” His letter referenced a conspiracy theory related to the United States government and its allies.
A few months before Friday’s incident, a protester pulled a similar stunt outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in outrage against the Hamas-Israel war, authorities said. The person set up outside the building in the city’s midtown neighborhood in December and used gasoline as an accelerant, police said. The protester, whose name was not released, was critically injured.
In 2018, well-known gay rights lawyer David Buckel, 60, burned himself to death in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park to protest ecological destruction. Buckel was the lead attorney in a lawsuit involving Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was murdered in Nebraska. The case was portrayed in the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Two years ago, Wynn Bruce, 50, a climate activist and Buddhist, set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day. Supreme Court police officers responded immediately but could not extinguish the blaze in time to save him, authorities said.
Self-immolation ignited the Arab Spring 14 years ago. Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit seller in Tunisia, set himself on fire on Dec. 17, 2010, to protest police harassment in his country. Bouazizi survived but was left disfigured.
The incident sparked protests against poverty in Tunisia before spreading to other Arab countries.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
This story comprises reporting from The Associated Press.
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