A man has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday night, Metropolitan Police said Saturday. The court said to CBS News in a statement Friday there were no other injuries, and there did not appear to be a public safety concern.
Police identified the man as 50-year-old Wynn Bruce, of Boulder, Colorado, and said he died of his injuries after being airlifted to a hospital following the incident. At approximately 6:30 p.m., he went on to the plaza in front of the court building and set himself on fire, the court said. The court did not offer any specifics on the person or what their motivation may have been.
Supreme Court Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident, the court said, and a medical helicopter airlifted the person to a local hospital.
"The area remains closed for further investigation, but this is not a public safety issue," the court said.
The incident comes amid a chaotic day in Washington D.C., where earlier Friday, multiple people were shot on a busy street. Police have identified a person of interest in the case, but have not named or apprehended a suspect.
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MonaSherry on April 23rd, 2022 at 21:18 UTC »
It seems it was a climate protest, especially since it was on Earth Day, and he posted the date of his death under a climate article in 2020
https://twitter.com/rebs_field/status/1517945042660253701?s=21&t=llbwc6tq0fnNh7rAxXJuig
https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/1517936564117987329?s=21&t=llbwc6tq0fnNh7rAxXJuig
rokr1292 on April 23rd, 2022 at 21:07 UTC »
A lot of news sources seem to have accidentally named this man as allegedly shooting 4 people, but those are being corrected now that it is clear that they were separate instances. the suspected shooter was not identified, the man who self-immolated was from colorado named Wynn Bruce
grouchycyborg on April 23rd, 2022 at 20:42 UTC »
It is almost like the media doesn’t want you to know what could drive someone to this sort of act. It took me 8 seconds to learn that the man that did this on Earth Days posts pictures of Greta, Buddhist monks, and notes like this from Carl Sagan: “Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet."