Courtroom Tragedy: Man Burns Himself Outside Trump Trial Building
United States Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unexpectedly postponed a campaign rally in North Carolina on Saturday due to an impending storm, telling the crowd he was “devastated” and promised to return to the battleground state shortly.
Trump called into the outdoor rally from his private jet about 30 minutes before his scheduled appearance at an airport in Wilmington, urging everyone to evacuate immediately due to safety concerns as lightning flashed overhead.
“I’m devastated that this could happen, but we want to keep everybody safe,” Trump told hundreds of supporters, many of whom had been queuing since early morning in hot and humid circumstances.
“…I believe we’ll just have to take a rain check. “I’m very sad,” Trump stated.
The event was scheduled to take place following the first week of Trump’s historic criminal trial in New York over a hush-money payment to a porn star. Opening comments were scheduled to begin on Monday after the jury selection process was completed.
Trump, who will face Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 general election, is also facing criminal charges in Washington, Georgia, and Florida, but the New York case is the only one that is guaranteed to go to trial this year.
Both the Biden and Trump teams are focusing on winning North Carolina, one of six or seven swing states that will most certainly decide the election in November. In 2020, Trump narrowly defeated Biden to win the state.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited North Carolina to campaign last month. Three law enforcement sources told NBC News previously that the man appeared to be a conspiracy theorist who may have had emotional troubles. According to sources, he may have posted his plan to burn himself on fire ahead of time.
Moments after putting himself on fire, the man was lying on the ground, burning. At times, he seemed to seize. Police attempted to put out the fire with a little fire extinguisher, but were unable. While still on fire, the man attempted to sit upright. The police then used a huge extinguisher to put out the flames. Dave, 73, an Upper West Side resident, witnessed the incident. Dave reported that the individual threw up a bundle of leaflets, picked them up, and flung them again.
“I heard this clattering,” he explained. “That grabbed our attention. Then he took out a can.
David stated that he witnessed the man proceed to douse himself with something before pulling out a lighter. “There I thought, this could be awful,” he went on to say. “I’m old enough to remember the Vietnam War.”
He claimed the individual then set himself on fire and was shortly enveloped in flames. The person made no sound as those around him stared on in horror. Ed Quinn, a freelance photojournalist who resides in the East Village, said he was facing the court when he heard someone yell, “He’s going to light himself on fire.”
“I see him dumping gasoline on his face, very deliberately,” he went on to say. “He was wearing a gray t-shirt.” It flooded his face. It saturated his shirt. “Boom, he went up.”
Quinn stated that it took the cops roughly a minute to arrive.
“Women were begging, screaming, put it out, put him out,” he went on to say.