The journey that ended with a man setting himself on fire on Friday outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald J. Trump was being tried seemed to have begun in Florida, with a series of increasingly bizarre outbursts.
Standing in the afternoon chill, the man, Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla., threw pamphlets into the air before dousing himself with an accelerant and setting his body ablaze.
The police hurried to extinguish the flames, but officials said his injuries were grave, and he was being treated at a hospital burn unit.
The fire just a block or two from the courthouse appeared calculated to draw widespread attention, horrifying bystanders and temporarily overshadowing the momentous trial of a former president.
His social media postings and arrest records suggest the immolation stemmed instead from a place of conspiracy theories and paranoia.
Persons:
Donald J, Trump, Max Azzarello, dousing
Locations:
Manhattan, Florida, St, Augustine, Fla