Man in Critical Condition After Setting Himself on Fire Across From Trump Courthouse

A man who set himself on fire on Friday across from the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection for Trump’s “hush money” trial was taking place is in critical condition, according to police.

The man, who was identified as Maxwell Azzarello from Saint Augustine, Florida, threw pamphlets throughout the park, before pouring an accelerant over himself and lighting himself on fire, the NYPD said in a press conference held on Friday afternoon. Emergency responders were eventually able to extinguish the fire, and transported the man to the hospital, police said.

“The victim is in critical condition but is alive and intubated at Cornell burn center at this time,” FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said during the conference. Four officers, including a court officer, sustained “minor injuries” due to their exposure to the fire but are “all fine,” Kavanagh said. Credit: NYPD via Storyful

Video transcript

- And then he pulls out a canister and pours some kind of liquid on himself-- a liquid we believe is an accelerant-- and he lights himself on fire. The male-- he takes a couple of steps while he's on fire. And then, eventually, he falls onto a police barrier and falls down to the ground.

He's on fire. Another area in the park where some of the accelerant spilt is also on fire. Civilians, court officers, members of the police department-- they run into the park.

They make efforts to put him out. They use their coats, they use fire extinguishers. Eventually, FDNY responds. W-- we're able to put the male-- extinguish the fire.

And from that point, we will remove him to Cornell Burn Unit where, right now, he's there in-- in critical condition. At this-- at this moment, I'll let our fire commissioner talk about the condition of the male, and the condition of people who also helped, and who were witnesses over there. Commissioner--

- Thank you. As the chief mentioned, the victim is in critical condition but is alive and intubated at Cornell Burn Center at this time. There were 4-- 3 NYPD officers and 1 court officer-- so 4 officers who had minor injuries from their exposure to the fire. They are all fine, they are stable. And they are green tags, which is minor, at this time.

We were on scene, as the chief mentioned. EMS did treat and transport the patient, and we do have our fire marshals here helping with the investigation at this time.

- Good afternoon, everyone. So the-- the male that's involved in this incident-- his name is going to be Maxwell Azzarello. All right, he's a male, he's born in 1987, his driver's license indicates that he's from Saint Augustine, Florida.

What we know from speaking to other witnesses and family members is that he arrived in New York sometime earlier in the week. We have his car being in Saint Augustine, Florida on the 13th. So anywhere between the 13th and today, he arrived.

We spoke to family members today. They were unaware that he was even in New York. As the fire commissioner stated, he's at Cornell Burn Center right now in likely condition.

So the accelerant that was used-- it appears to be some kind of alcohol-based substance that's used for cleaning. And that's all we have right now.

- So why don't we go right down the line--

- Yep. Going to open it up--

- --left to right-- and just-- we'll decide who's going to take what.

- Marc Brown--

MARC BROWN: I wanted to ask you about security. Obviously, there's a [INAUDIBLE] NYPD officers. Are you going to be putting more officers? What's-- is there any change in the strategy from what the protocol was before?

- All right. Listen, Mark. After every incident, we have an after action, and we'll talk about if we're going to add officers or not.

But just so you know, we had a lot of officers in the area. The-- it is open to the public to still walk through the park. And so there was no security breach here at all.

- All right, Aaron Katersky.

AARON KATERSKY: Thanks, Chief. Any evidence of a political motivation here? Do the pamphlets give you any clues as to why this occurred?

- The pamphlets seem to be propaganda based, almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlet. Some information in regards to Ponzi schemes and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are-- are fronts for the mob-- so a little bit of a conspiracy theory going on here.

- Rocco.

- Chief, any indication if he was here in the park earlier in the week at all?

- No. we-- we're going to go through all-- all of his video. But what we've seen so far today, it appears that he walked from Leonard Street, he entered the park, walked into the middle of the park, and then committed the act.

- Darla Miles.

DARLA MILES: Chief, do you--

[FIRE TRUCK BLARES]

When speaking to the family, did they give you any other insight into, say, perhaps, the reasons [INAUDIBLE]?

- Very preliminary w-- in dealing with the family so far. We just made notification to them that the incident had taken place.

- All right, back there.

- How concerned are you that somebody was able to get this far in, light themselves on fire? Obviously, you said they're in critical condition right now. But how concerning is that with all the law enforcement [INAUDIBLE]?

- Definitely. Yeah. Thank you. We're very concerned.

Of course, we're going to review our security protocols. This gentleman did not breach the scar-- security protocols. The park was open to the public. But, of course, we're going to look at everything. And what the magnitude of what's going on around right here, we'll reassess our security with our federal partners.

- How does that change things moving forward?

- Like I said, we're going to go back-- we're going to go back to the command, we'll talk to our federal partners, and we'll make decisions. If we need to tighten up security, maybe we'll shut down the park. This is something that we'll determine once we talk with all our partners, with the court officers, to make sure that-- with everything going on, the gravity of the event going on right now-- we make sure we'll have ample security.

- All right, Anthony DiLorenzo.

ANTHONY DILORENZO: So from the video, and from eyewitnesses, it took a few minutes for of the police officers to get there, to get their hands on fire extinguishers. Was there no FDNY presence already there because of the obvious persons inside the courtroom? And is that something that maybe the FBI wants to revisit in case there is some sort of another emergency like this, where EMS or Fire would have to respond immediately? Because it took police officers to use the fire extinguishers to get them out.

- So, Anthony, I'll give that-- I'll give a piece of that to the fire commissioner. But, obviously, we're working in partnership with courts, FDNY. All of the city agencies that need to be over here are-- are here.

But you've got to also remember, the park's open to the public, so there was no reason for anybody to already have a fire extinguisher on standby. Nobody knew that this guy was about to light himself on fire. So two minutes is a pretty quick response time to be able to get to a vehicle, get a fire extinguisher, run around, get into the park, and start trying to extinguish this fire. All right? But as-- as far as FDNY resources, I'll let Commissioner Kavanagh just talk about what she-- what she may want to do.

LAURA KAVANAGH: Yeah, as they mentioned, obviously, we'll work with NYPD to review what happened. And if any additional resources are necessary, we will place them here. But typically, for any kind of major security event-- which this is-- we have additional EMS resources on-scene.

Fire-- only sometimes. There usually is not a reason for that, as you typically would not have next to a public park. But we will work with NYPD to review that.

- What's your-- were they the ones to respond?

LAURA KAVANAGH: I would have to confirm what time they responded. We'll get back to you. But we do typically, in any kind of high security event, have more EMS resources on-scene, because there could be patients for any reason.

- All right, I'm going to do two or three more. Right here.

- Given the high profile-- given us a high profile nature of what's happening across the street, we still haven't seen many ambulances [INAUDIBLE] on standby outside of [INAUDIBLE] give or take. Do you think that this is something that you have been here, in place?

- Not everything that you see right here is part of the plan. There's a large security plan for this. And trust me. When we had our meetings before this took place, we met with FDNY, EMS. We met with our Corp partners, we met with Secret Service, so I'm not quite sure what else are you're looking for.

- Well, an ambulance, like, on standby, like [INAUDIBLE].

- Yeah. EMS-- EMS and FDNY are in the area during-- during this trial, as well. And they-- they're totally aware of what's going on. And our response time today was-- was pretty quick.

- Back, 10:10.

- Did the man-- do we know if the man said anything during the before, during the incident?

- Joe, do you want to talk about it?

- As of right now, what we're shown is that he just walked directly into the park, and began to throw the pamphlets in the air, and then lit himself on fire. We're still-- that could be-- come out during our investigation. We have a lot of witnesses here, a lot of people are coming forward. We hope if more people come forward, we can put a little more information together. But as of right now, we don't have that he was making any statements.

- Tim McNicholas-- CBS.

TIM MCNICHOLAS: Did you notice anything online or on social media beforehand you know of? Like, something about the conspiracy theory [INAUDIBLE]?

- Yeah. We're-- we're looking through his social media and what he did online prior, and it appears that he did post something in regards to this event prior to the incident.

- Dan Rivoli.

DAN RIVOLI: That was going to be my question. But to go off that, on the internet, posting for something like this trial when you're gathering intelligence, is social media something you do look at?

And, obviously, I think one of the things we're looking at is a Substack post saying, "I'm the man." You know, I'm paraphrasing. But, "I'm the man who can set himself on fire outside [INAUDIBLE]."

- Yeah, all-- all--

DAN RIVOLI: Is that something you saw?

- All of his social media is going to be scrubbed. Obviously, we didn't know him prior to this incident. I-- from-- I can talk for about the Detective Bureau. We didn't know him prior to this incident. But going back now, part of the investigation-- all his social media, any associates-- we'll-- we'll be looking at all of that.

- Right here.

- Is there any connection between this guy lighting himself on fire and the Trump trial?

- At this point, like I said, very preliminary-- we don't have that.

- Emily.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Is he expected [INAUDIBLE]?

- As of right now, he's considered likely, which means he's-- he's very critical. His condition is not good. But as of right now, he's still alive.

- Shayna.

- Are you aware of any prior disturbing incidents involving this individual either here or anywhere else?

- We're-- we're looking through that right now, as five minutes ago before we started this press conference, I didn't see any criminal history in New York.

- I know it hasn't been asked yet, but I just want Commissioner Daughtry to step in for a second and just talk about what he did immediately after to make sure that the area is safe.

- Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Sheppard.

Immediately following this incident, I requested the bomb squad to come. I wanted the bomb squad to search this area for any type-- any possible secondary devices. They're actually doing this right now behind me, with K-9 checking all the vehicles.

As of right now, there has been no additional devices found. There hasn't been any devices found-- I'm sorry-- in regards to this incident. So we'll be continuing to search this area. And as far as your question about enhanced security procedures, we're going to take a look into this.

Maybe we may have to shut this area down, but that's something that we're going to do. We're going to have a conversation when we get back to 1 Police Plaza. Thank you.

- All right, last couple.

- Right here.

- Can-- can you talk about-- just to reiterate, what-- how many personnel you do have on-site right now?

- Yeah, we're not going to talk about specific numbers. But, obviously, we're working with numerous city agencies and our federal partners over in this area. Obviously, we're working with courts, we're working with the Secret Service, we're working with sanitation-- whose building is right here-- we're working with FDNY. So there's a lot of city agencies that are part of this, but we won't discuss what-- what number of personnel we have out here.

All right, last-- last two.

- [INAUDIBLE]. All right, right here in front.

- Can you just share what you told Donald Trump's Secret Service detail-- his team-- what's been shared with the team?

- We're not going to share conversations that we have with Secret Service, but everyone involved in the trial inside is aware of the incident that took place outside today.

- And, quickly, do you know how--

- Last one.

- --he got here?

- So who do you want?

- Do you know how Max Azzarello got here?

- Under investigation.

- That's under investigation, but I'll let Chief Kennedy talk about that.

- Yeah. As of-- as of right now, on this camera, we have him walking to the park. That doesn't mean that he didn't either take the train here or come here via car. We do have a vehicle identified that's connected with him. We're currently searching for that car.

- All right, last one.

- All right, last question.

- Yeah, so the man was seen by multiple people carrying a sign that appeared to be somewhat anti-Trump. And earlier this week, you guys blocked off barricades for Trump supporters protesting and leftists. And I noticed that he lit himself on fire on the Trump supporter side.

- Go ahead.

- Do you have any reason to believe that he was targeting Trump supporters?

- As-- as I think everybody who stepped up here said-- said earlier, we do not believe he is-- this was targeting any particular person or any particular group. We're just, right now, labeling it as a sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we're going from there. But the investigation will continue.

- Thank you, everyone.

- All right. Thank you, everybody.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- [LAUGHS]

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Sir, you may have to leave--