{"id":105243,"date":"2024-04-20T00:03:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T00:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/man-sets-himself-on-fire-outside-courthouse-where-trump-is-on-trial\/"},"modified":"2024-04-20T00:03:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T00:03:48","slug":"man-sets-himself-on-fire-outside-courthouse-where-trump-is-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/man-sets-himself-on-fire-outside-courthouse-where-trump-is-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sets himself on fire outside courthouse where Trump is on trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(NEW YORK) — A man set himself on fire in a park across the street from the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial.<\/p>\n

The man, Maxwell Azzarello, was badly burned and taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said.<\/p>\n

Trump was inside the downtown Manhattan courthouse at the time and was made aware of the fire outside, sources told ABC News.<\/p>\n

The NYPD said there were no threats to public safety but the NYPD Bomb Squad was sweeping the area out of an abundance of caution.<\/p>\n

Azzarello took pamphlets out of his backpack and threw them around the park before pulling out a canister, pouring a liquid on himself and lighting himself on fire, Jeffrey Maddrey, NYPD’s chief of department, said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

He eventually fell to the ground and civilians, police and court officers ran into the park to try to extinguish the blaze, Maddrey said.<\/p>\n

“He doused himself and threw these pamphlets across the park … and immediately just lit himself on fire,” one witness told ABC News.<\/p>\n

The witness said the flames “were just massive immediately.”<\/p>\n

“Pretty horrific thing to see,” he said.<\/p>\n

The pamphlets appeared to be “propaganda-based,” officials said.<\/p>\n

Officials described Azzarello as a “conspiracy theorist.”<\/p>\n

Azzarello is from St. Augustine, Florida, and arrived in New York earlier in the week, officials said. It appears he acted alone, officials said.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re very concerned,” Maddrey said. He said the NYPD will review security protocol because of the “gravity of the event going on,” referring to the Trump trial.<\/p>\n

Trump is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.<\/p>\n

The trial began on Monday with jury selection. The full jury panel was selected by midday Friday.<\/p>\n

Opening statements will take place Monday.<\/p>\n

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spencer Platt\/Getty Images (NEW YORK) — A man set himself on fire in a park across the street from the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial. The man, Maxwell Azzarello, was badly burned and taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said. TrumpRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}