A man set himself on fire at Black Lives Matter Plaza on Saturday night, interrupting what had been a peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstration of nearly 1,000 people marking a year since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel that set off a devastating war in Gaza.
D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said in a statement that the man was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that weren’t life-threatening. The fire, which Washington Post reporters witnessed, sent bystanders screaming for a medic and was quickly extinguished as two D.C. police officers rushed toward the man.
One grabbed his shirt while the other grabbed a kaffiyeh on the street in front of him and tried to extinguish the flame with it.
“Oh, my God, please don’t hurt yourself!” one rallygoer yelled.
Micah Warnock-Estrada, a friend who claimed to have seen a live stream of the incident, identified the person burned as Samuel Mena Jr.
Warnock-Estrada said that Mena, who Warnock-Estrada knew to use they/them pronouns, messaged shortly before the incident to flag an Instagram live stream that would later broadcast the episode. Pronouns are not listed on Mena’s social media pages or personal website, and The Post could not immediately confirm this information. Mena’s personal website includes plans “to demonstrate” on Saturday “with as much of my conviction as I possibly can.”