Loneliness, conspiracy theories and loss apparently drove the troubled man who set himself on fireplace this week throughout the road from the courthouse the place former President Donald Trump is on trial.
The ultimate, deadly act was a tragic denouement within the lifetime of Max Azzarello, who associates described as clever and type — however considerably depressed, and nonetheless reeling from the 2022 demise of his mom, who he adopted when he moved to Florida a couple of years in the past.
Azzarello, 37, grew up on Lengthy Island’s North Shore, within the tiny village of Sea Cliff, and moved to Florida, following his mother and father.
“He was the grandest man I ever met in my life and I adored him,” Jamie Black, 63, of Sea Cliff, who was associates with Max’s late mom, Libby, and had recognized him since he was about 8.
“He was sensible and one among my closest associates. I’m devastated.”
Sources who knew Azzarello mentioned he was prescribed anti-depressants, together with Adderall, in his earlier years, and pretty just lately began taking amphetamines.
Azzarello was “virtually too sensible,” Black mentioned.
“I even mentioned as soon as to him, are you schizophrenic however he wasn’t,” Black mentioned.
“He was so caring and type and hilarious and he was introduced up in an ideal household. I don’t assume he had any psychological sickness. I feel he was simply too sensible.”
Azzarello’s lifelong good friend, Daniel Carleton, who went to center college and highschool with Azzarello and roomed with him at UNC-Chapel Hill for 4 years, mentioned he at all times had some psychological well being points.
“There could have been a chemical imbalance there that was made worse by substance abuse however there was no particular analysis,” he mentioned.
Azzarello was lonely, Carleton mentioned. Azzarello, who was straight, by no means appeared to have a girlfriend, he added.
He was very shut, nonetheless, to his sister Katherine, 38, who lives in Brooklyn.
“He’s at all times been very sensible, since center college,” Carleton informed The Put up.
“He was good man and he was at all times political.”
“He was alone for a very long time and I feel it was a serious contributor to his decline,” he added.
“His household is nice. They knew he had points they usually had him checked right into a psychological well being facility final 12 months however they couldn’t preserve him previous a three-day maintain.”
“Max was sensible sufficient to recreation the system and idiot the system. The psychological well being system truly failed him.”
Azzarello took a flip for the more serious with the beginning of 2023, not lengthy after his mom died, Carleton mentioned.
He give up what had been a sequence of well-paying tech guide jobs by the tip of 2022.
When information broke in March 2023 that the Silicon Valley Financial institution had all of the sudden collapsed, Azzarello turned obsessed.
The monetary establishment — a 40-year-old lender to startups and enterprise capitalists — turned the second-biggest financial institution casualty in US historical past when it was abruptly shut down by regulators.
Billionaire Peter Thiel had urged startups to drag their money or threat shedding it solely forward of the financial institution’s failure.
“He by some means linked Thiel to all that and went down this big rabbit gap and began posting loopy conspiracies,” Carleton mentioned.
“The medication have been uncontrolled in 2023.”
Azzarello was arrested 3 times in Florida final 12 months, together with for throwing wine at a framed autograph that includes Invoice Clinton, in response to police data.
He was jailed Aug. 21 and remained there till Oct. 3, when he was sentenced to 180 days of probation and launched.
“He was passionate that authorities and enterprise elites screwed over the widespread individual and he needed to battle that. He needed to start out a revolution a lot in order that he was prepared to gentle himself on fireplace to get his message out.”
Carleton mentioned Azzarello had been sober since his jail stint.
Azzarello had posted his admiration for Aaron Bushnell, the younger airman who self-immolated outdoors the Israeli embassy in Washington DC final month.
Like quite a lot of his associates, Carleton needed the optimistic facet of Azzarello remembered.
Azzarello was thought-about an elite on-line chess participant with a peak score of over 2000 factors which put him within the 96th percentile of on-line chess gamers, Carleton mentioned.
“We performed chess on the chess app and our final recreation was two weeks in the past and he beat me and I’m a reasonably good participant,” Carleton mentioned.
“So you may see he was nonetheless considering rationally.”
In case you are scuffling with suicidal ideas or are experiencing a psychological well being disaster and stay in New York Metropolis, you may name 1-888-NYC-WELL without spending a dime and confidential disaster counseling. In the event you stay outdoors the 5 boroughs, you may dial the 24/7 Nationwide Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
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