Man sets himself on fire outside the courthouse where Trump is standing trial

• A man set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump stands trial.

• The fire was spotted at a park across the street from the courthouse.

• It is unclear what prompted the self–immolation or the condition of the victim.

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 said.

Police later said during a 3 p.m. press conference that the man, who Business Insider is not identifying by name, is alive and intubated.

The man was standing in Collect Pond Park, located across the street from the courthouse, where a few pro-Trump demonstrators had been showing support for the former president.

One onlooker, who said he was walking by, told Business Insider that he noticed the man drop pamphlets on the ground and then turned to look.

“He took a can, and he poured it all over himself,” the witness, who asked not to be named, said.

At that point, according to the witness, the man took out a lighter and lit himself on fire.

“He was on fire for a while,” he said.

One police officer tried to extinguish the fire with a jacket but failed, another man at the scene said.

Eventually, someone ran over with a fire extinguisher, and officials loaded the man into an ambulance, he said.

Witnesses said people at the scene were screaming. The flames engulfed the man’s 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.

The incident didn’t interfere with Trump’s ongoing trial, as the court was on a lunch break at the time.

“Not knowing the motivations behind this sickening situation, it’s difficult to make any definitive remarks, other than to say we are thankful that to the best of our present knowledge, nobody other than the individual in question was hurt,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump Campaign, said in a statement provided to BI. “We also extend our condolences to the traumatized witnesses on the scene and offer our deepest gratitude to the great first responders of the City of New York for their actions.”

Pivoting from the self–immolation outside the courthouse where the GOP frontrunner stands trial on charges related to hush-money payments to a porn star, back to the campaign, the statement continued: “Today is more proof that our nation is in deep trouble and that perhaps more than ever, we all must work to Make America Great Again.”

This story is developing and will be updated.

Read the original article on Business Insider