An active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force has died after he set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, in apparent protest of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which he described as a “genocide.”
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) identified the deceased demonstrator in a statement to TIME on Monday as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, whose identity and death were first reported on social media by independent journalist Talia Jane.
Bushnell, who was wearing fatigues on Sunday in Washington, was a DevOps engineer based in San Antonio, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bushnell had walked up to the embassy shortly before 1 pm on February 25 and began livestreaming his harrowing protest on Twitch. According to the outlet, law enforcement believes that the airman set up the livestream on his phone and “doused himself in accelerant and ignited the flames.”
In various posts and a video, Bushnell expressed US support for Israel after the October 7 Hamas attack. This led to a brutal war in Gaza, where thousands of civilians were killed. He cited this as the reason he died by suicide.
Aaron Bushnell’s last Facebook posts
Bushnell took to Facebook earlier in the day, writing, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” The post has since been deleted.
Bushnell also posted a video where he explained why he had planned to do what he did. “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,” he said. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
He live streamed the video of the tragic incident on Twitch, but it was later taken down. The footage reportedly showed him walking up to the Israeli embassy and pouring a liquid on himself. He then set himself on fire, shouting “Free Palestine” repeatedly.
The 25-year-old was from San Antonio, Texas. He died on Sunday, February 25, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington confirmed.