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A Colorado man who set himself on fire in front of the United States Supreme Court has died. The U.S Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident on Friday around 6:30 p.m. ET at the Supreme Court Plaza.
Authorities closed the area around the Supreme Court building as they investigated the incident. The victim, identified as Wynn Bruce, was airlifted to the hospital and where he was pronounced dead.
While authorities have not said why Bruce set himself on fire, his friend Dr. K. Kritee wrote on Twitter that he was protesting the lack of action on climate change. She said that he had been planning the act for at least a year.
"This guy was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis. We are piecing together info but he had been planning it for at least one year. #wynnbruce I am so moved," she wrote.
According to The Independent, Bruce's social media pages were filled with posts about climate activism and Buddhism. In one Facebook post last year, Bruce shared a fire emoji with the date of his death, 4/22/2022.