It has now been revealed that the man who lit himself on fire outside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump’s trial is taking place is a self-described “investigative researcher” who, just prior to the incident, uploaded a conspiracy-filled manifesto to the internet.
The 37-year-old Florida resident Maxwell Azzarello has been posting conspiracy theories on social media in recent months. In them, he criticizes the wealthy and powerful and asserts that “our only goal is to abolish our criminal government.”
According to police, he is currently in serious condition at the Weill Cornell Medicine Burn Center in Manhattan.
Authorities told reporters that although three NYPD policemen and one court officer had minor injuries from the fire, their conditions were stable.
In a manifesto-style statement that was uploaded on Substack, he denounced corruption in the US government less than an hour before he set himself on fire.
Identifying himself as a “investigative researcher,” Mr. Azzarello warned of an upcoming “apocalyptic fascist world coup” and called the act of self-immolation “an extreme act of protest” against a “totalitarian con.”
“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,” he wrote.
“The pamphlets seem to be propaganda-based almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlets,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny stated. “Some information in regards to Ponzi schemes, and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are front for the mob. So a little bit of a conspiracy theory going on here.”
When the police spoke with his relatives, they were not aware that he had gone to New York. It is believed by the authorities that he came between April 13 and April 19.
He was not known to the police before to this occurrence, they claimed, and as the park was accessible to the public at the time of the incident, he did not violate any security procedures.
According to publicly available data, Mr. Azzarello is a registered Democrat. Additionally, the University of North Carolina acknowledged that he attended from 2005 to 2009 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and public policy.
