ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — UPDATE: Max Azzarello was confirmed to have died Saturday morning.
Thirty-seven-year-old Maxwell Azzarello set himself on fire outside the Donald Trump hush money trial in New York City Friday afternoon.
Azzarello is from St. Augustine and arrived in New York earlier this week. Records show his last known address as an apartment on St. George Street in St. Augustine.
Here's what we know about Azzarello, based on public records and a manifesto he emailed out to several newsrooms.
Manifesto
Azzarello emailed a manifesto to several newsrooms around the country, including First Coast News sister stations in Atlanta and Houston. It appears he scheduled the email to send around the time he set himself on fire.
He called himself an "investigative researcher" who did this as an "act of extreme protest." He accused the United States government of being part of an "apocalyptic fascist world coup."
"These claims sound like fantastical conspiracy theory, but they are not. They are proof of conspiracy," he wrote.
Azzarello apologized to his friends, family, witnesses and first responders. "I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict."
He then linked to a longer version of his statement, which is linked here.
Arrest records
Azzarello was arrested three times between August 19, 2023 and August 24, 2023.
Federal court documents also show he filed a lawsuit against tens of public figures and entities, including the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, Quora, Stanford University, Meta, Mark Cuban Companies, Nicola Sturgeon, who served as the first minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023, and others.
On August 19, 2023, he was arrested at the Casa Monica Hotel and charged with criminal mischief.
St. Augustine Police Department records show Azzarello entered the lobby of the hotel after he ate dinner there. He approached an autograph by Former President Bill Clinton that is written on the north wall of the west end of the lobby. He threw a glass of wine at the wall where the autograph was.
The autograph was protected by a "picture-type" frame mounted on the wall. The wine glass broke, which "spread wine" on the frame, the wall and the autograph, police said. The hotel estimated this caused between $400 and $500 worth of damage.
On August 19, Azzarello was arrested for disturbing peace at the Casa Monica again.
The arresting officer arrived at the scene and saw Azzarello outside, taking off his clothes and yelling at customers, he wrote in his arrest report. The officer "attempted to talk to him" but he walked away, walking around the Lighter Museum nearby then returning to the Casa Monica.
The report says Azzarello was yelling "several curse words" in an "intimidating manner." The officer spoke with the the management of Casa Monica and they said Azzarello was making guests feel afraid for their safety, preventing them from coming in or out of the hotel. He was arrested and taken to jail "without incident."
The arresting officer also wrote that Azzarello told him "it was his goal to cause a disturbance in front of the business, because they trespassed him from there and did not want his money." The report continues, "He stated that since he's being arrested for causing a disturbance, he must have succeeded."
The August 24 arrest was for criminal mischief with damage to property, SAPD records show. Azzarello was arrested outside the United Way on Bridge Street in St. Augustine after he wrote on the sign for the building. He also wrote on the sign that denotes the "Little Free Library" on the same property, SAPD records show. During the same offense, he defaced and broke a construction sign nearby.
When he was arrested in that incident, he was discovered climbing into the bed of a pickup truck and going through the owner's belongings. Only the United Way wanted to press charges.
Federal lawsuit
Azzarello's federal lawsuit says "the defendants has knowingly, participated in, and benefited financially from a decades-long fraudulent scheme," which has caused "significant financial, emotional, psychological harm to plaintiff (Azorello)."
It goes on to explain why he is suing each of the people. The suit was dismissed by a federal judge in October 2023.
What happened?
Video from the scene showed a person lying on the ground on fire and people rushing over to douse the person with a fire extinguisher and try to bat the flames away.
CNN anchor Laura Coates was live on the air when the incident happened. She described seeing people rushing over and removing their coats to try to extinguish the flames.
A witness told NBC that Azzarello was in the designated protest area and "threw a batch of fliers, then doused himself with something and then set himself on fire."
Judge Juan M. Merchan, presiding over Trump's trial, seemed to be unaware of what was happening outside of the courthouse during Friday's proceedings.
