Horrified witnesses desperately called for help as self-described “investigative researcher” Max Azzarello lit himself on fire in a park outside the Manhattan courthouse where President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place, shocking footage shows.
The chilling video shows one man off-camera beginning his plea for police right before Azzarello ignited himself into a ball of flames just as jury selection concluded in Trump’s historic case.
“Police, police, there’s a guy lighting himself on fire,” 25-year-old William Schoeffler screamed as Azzarello doused himself with an accelerant.
“He’s lighting himself on fire, hello.”
The shocked onlooker’s calls for help became more urgent as flames began to quickly erupt, according to the video obtained by The Post.
“Police! Police! Fire! Holy sh-t, holy sh-t,” Schoeffler screamed as other witnesses also began screaming.
Seconds later authorities swarmed the scene to help the 37-year-old man as he lay on the ground with severe burns throughout his body.
One bystander was holding a woman who was in tears.
Cops directed the witnesses to move away as they waited for EMS to arrive.
Schoeffler told The Post that once Azzarello lit himself on fire, there was little anyone could do.
He also said he was on his lunch break when he struck up a brief conversation with Azzarello about ten minutes before the self-immolation.
“At first I thought it was just some generic protest. Once he lit himself, it was literally five or six seconds from when he threw the pamphlets, lit himself, and there is nothing you could do,” Schoeffler, 25, said.
“I just started screaming for the cops, trying to get someone in there. Once he lit himself, there was nothing you could do, take off a jacket and throw it over it, the flames were massive.”
“Even the cops they brought out an extinguisher, but the fuels have burnt off once the cops got there.”
After about 50 cops reached the scene, it took another few minutes to load his body into the ambulance.
As of Friday evening, he was in critical condition at Cornell University Hospital.
“He was shaking a little bit on the ground. It was crazy,” Schoeffler said.
Schoeffler, who founded a start-up, said he spoke beforehand to Azzarello, who was promoting his Substack — that outlines a vast doomsday conspiracy – and railed against elected officials.
“Something about all the politicians are very corrupt, and talking to him, it wasn’t anything of note, it didn’t make any sense,” the Manhattan resident said.
“He said Trump and Biden are both corrupt, but that they’re both the same, and that they’re running some kleptocracy, and after a while I just walked away.”
As Schoeffler was talking to another man, he heard a bunch of pamphlets get tossed into the sky that drew attention to Azzarello.
“I thought he was protesting, and he basically was immediately dousing himself with some sort of fuel, and then immediately set himself on fire with a lighter,” he recalled.
“He was just standing there, and after a minute hit the ground. By the time the cops got there, all of the fuel had burnt off of his body, and you could see his skin. He didn’t make too much noise, he was very quiet. Pretty horrifying.”
The pamphlets that Azzarello tossed in the air had a link to a Substack page with a headline “I have set myself on fire outside Trump Trial” that includes a bizarre and rambling 2,649-word manifesto filled with conspiracy theories.
He recently arrived in New York City from the Sunshine State, though his family was unaware of his trip, cops said at a press conference.
“He had a protest sign that said that all politicians were corrupt, and they’re all fascists, and then the back of the sign said something about Substack, his own channel that you were supposed to follow him on,” Schoeffler said.
“He looked like an unemployed journalist, honestly. I didn’t think he was harmful, I just thought he was writing about whatever.”