Key Points
- Officials said the man did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial.
- The man burned for several minutes in full view of television cameras.
- Witnesses on the scene said they were disturbed by the incident.
A man has died after setting himself on fire outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials say he did not appear to have been targeting Trump.
The man burned for several minutes in full view of television cameras that were set up outside the courthouse, where the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president is being held.
NBC News and other US media said early on Saturday the man, aged in his 30s, had died.
NBC News quoted New York City police as saying the hospital where the man was taken had declared him dead.
Witnesses said the man pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air before he doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire.
One of those pamphlets included references to “evil billionaires” but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Trump.
The New York Police Department said the man, who they identified as Max Azzarello of St Augustine, Florida, did not appear to be targeting Trump or others involved in the trial.
“Right now we are labelling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we are going from there,” Tarik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the Police Department, told reporters.
In an online manifesto, a man using that name said he set himself on fire and apologised to friends, witnesses and first responders.
The shocking development came shortly after jury selection for the trial was completed, clearing the way for prosecutors and defence attorneys to make opening statements next week in a case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.
The 12 jurors, along with six alternates, will consider evidence in a first-ever trial to determine whether a former US president is guilty of breaking the law.
Most are not native New Yorkers, hailing from across the United States and countries like Ireland and Lebanon.
Trump is accused of covering up a $202,365 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star she says they had a decade earlier.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and denies any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases as well, but this is the only one certain to go to trial ahead of the 5 November election, when the Republican politician aims to again take on Democratic President Joe Biden.
A conviction would not bar him from office.