April 19, 2024

Absolutely horrific footage coming out of Manhattan where a man apparently self-immolated (set himself on fire) in the Trump supporter area right outside of the courthouse. This act occurred immediately after the full 18 person jury was officially seated, although it is unclear if this is related to Trump or some other protest...or maybe mental illness.

In the above video, Laura Coates from CNN does an absolutely incredible job relaying to viewers what she is seeing and hearing in the moment. Shots of the fire are far enough away to limit the gore, but videos circulating online are pretty horrific.

Reports are the man was still moving and alive as the fire was being put out.

We will update this post as news on motive and, most importantly, the man's condition, come out.

UPDATE: (Karoli) The last reports we have are that this man is in critical condition. It's a wonder he survived at all. There have been some tweets with suggestions that this man wrote a manifesto that is, frankly, derived from the deepest conspiratorial corners of the internet, if in fact he wrote it, something that is unconfirmed. I'm not going to post it here because it looks to me like the ravings of someone who has been misled and is suggestible.

If you are contemplating suicide or know someone contemplating suicide, please choose to call 1-800-273-TALK and speak to someone instead. There are more resources here.

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