The airman, who filmed the incident and could be heard yelling “Free Palestine,” was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after collapsing to the ground.

The U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in an apparent protest against the Israel-Hamas war has died, according to a U.S. official.

Next of kin notification is continuing, so the Air Force won’t release his name until 24 hours after the final notification is complete.

The District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department responded to a call about a person on fire outside the embassy just before 1 p.m. Sunday, and found the flames extinguished by the Secret Service’s uniformed division.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I dislike this. I’ve seen first hand what serious burns do to people, both in the immediate and long term. Imo, this is there should be no speech louder than this, but it just kinda gets an “oh, damn, really? Man. What’s on the next channel?” reaction. I dislike that people resort to this when they’re going to get ignored, and I dislike that it largely is ignored except for a fleeting moment of sensational headlines.

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    his last words were:

    “My name is Aaron Bushnell. I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal… FREE PALESTINE!”

    • heartpatcher@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      EVERYONE STOP SYMPATHIZING WITH HIM, because of a few angry bullshit takes he had on the internet. Because doing that removes your eligibility for sympathy.

      Him being an idiot doesn’t mean he was a bad person. Does he have some record of doing something actually “VILE”?

      • i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        doing something actually “VILE”

        yes celerating death of American soldiers , he was deranged but in no way someone who deserves empathy