A man lit himself on fire Friday outside of the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial is taking place, witnesses and police sources told Business Insider.The incident unfolded inside a barricaded area across the street from the Manhattan criminal courthouse where a full jury had just been seated in the former president’s historic trial.Emergency responders received a 911 call at 1:37 p.m. and paramedics rushed a man to a local hospital in critical condition, according to a New York Police Department spokesperson.”There are no additional safety concerns at this time, and the investigation is ongoing,” the spokesperson saidAt the park, one witness told Business Insider that he saw the man pull out a can and pour something on himself before the fire.”After pouring himself with obviously something flammable, he took out, I think, a lighter and lit himself on fire,” the man, an Upper West Side resident, told reporters.
The witness said people at the scene started screaming. The flames engulfed his entire body.Before the fire, the man threw a couple dozen pamphlets titled “The True History of the World.”A QR code on the pamphlets linked to a Substack post published around the time of the fire. In the post, an individual claimed that he was the one to set himself on fire. The post was filled with conspiracy-filled thoughts about the American government.”I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” he wrote.Witnesses said he was standing among a small group of pro-Trump protesters before the fire.The incident didn’t interfere with Trump’s ongoing trial, as the court was on a lunch break at the time. This story is developing and will be updated.
