(BBC News) A U.S. airman has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.
The man was identified by police as Aaron Bushnell, 25, of San Antonio, Texas.
Officers from the US Secret Service extinguished the flames before the man was taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Before setting himself on fire, he said he would “no longer be complicit in genocide.”
In a video aired live on streaming site Twitch, the man identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force.
Dressed in military uniform, he said he was “about to engage in an extreme act of protest.” After setting himself on fire, he repeatedly shouted “free Palestine”.
The incident happened at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Washington police said officers were working with the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the incident.
The Air Force would not confirm details of Bushnell’s service, citing family notification policies. A Pentagon spokesman called the incident a “tragic event” during a news conference Monday.
Before setting himself alight, Bushnell emailed a number of reporters and left-wing and anarchist news websites. The Atlanta Community Press Collective, a group that received the email, provided a copy to the BBC.
“Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people,” the email reads, warning it would be “highly disturbing.”
In his Linkedin profile, Bushnell stated that he graduated from basic training “top of class” in November 2020 and that he was seeking “to transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering.”
