A 63-year-old man has been arrested and charged after allegedly setting himself on fire inside the lobby of a building in Lower Manhattan, New York, United States.
The incident occurred at about 3:00 p.m. on Friday, August 28, at 315 Hudson Street near Vandam Street, a 10-storey building where Google is the largest tenant.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) identified the suspect as John Butch, a Brooklyn resident, and said he allegedly used an accelerant and a lighter to set himself alight.
According to reports, surveillance footage showed Butch entering the building’s lobby at about 2:00 p.m. before leaving. He returned roughly an hour later and, at around 2:58 p.m., investigators said he used fluid from a backpack to ignite himself.
His body and the backpack were reportedly engulfed in flames, causing panic among people inside the building.
Building security guards quickly intervened and used fire extinguishers to put out the flames before emergency personnel from the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) and NYPD arrived.
Butch survived the incident and was taken by emergency medical personnel to the burn unit at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he remained in stable condition.
Police said no staff members or bystanders were injured in the incident.
Butch has reportedly been charged with arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
During a search of his belongings, investigators also recovered a collapsible tactical baton from his charred backpack.
Authorities have not established whether Google was the intended target of the incident.
Although the building is prominently associated with Google, it is a shared facility that also houses the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, the New York Society for the Deaf and several ground-floor retail businesses.
Investigations are ongoing as authorities work to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident and whether the suspect had a specific target or motive.
