Climate activist who set himself ablaze on Supreme Court steps succumbs to injuries

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A Boulder, Colo., man who reportedly set himself on fire outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on Earth Day in a protest that he allegedly may have pre-planned for a year in advance, has died.

The deceased individual, who is said to be a Buddhist and a climate activist and who various news outlets have identified as Wynn Bruce, passed away on Saturday morning.

Bruce, who was in his 50s, was airlifted to a local hospital on Friday evening and tragically succumbed at that facility.

Supreme Court Police, the D.C. police, and U.S. Capitol Police all responded to the incident.

A D.C. police spokesperson told the Denver Post that “Supreme Court police are continuing to investigate the man’s motive. She said Bruce was observed sitting on a bench about 6:05 p.m. Friday. A short time after that, she said, Supreme Court officers saw the man engulfed in flame. Bruce was the only person injured in the incident.”

This self-immolation occurred at around the same time cops were responding to an unrelated active shooter situation in the area. In that incident, a suspect was found dead in a nearby apartment. At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl were wounded in the unconnected situation, and all are expected to recover.

On Twitter, the U.S. Capitol Police provided an alert that “a medical helicopter just landed near the Capitol for a medical emergency. This is not a public safety issue.” They also advised that two roads — First Street between Constitution and Independence, and East Capitol Street between First Street and Second Street  — would be temporarily closed as public safety agencies responded.

“A Facebook page belonging to a person named Wynn Bruce said he was a Buddhist and a climate activist,” the New York Post claimed. In 2020, Bruce left a cryptic Facebook comment that included a fire emoji and the date of his death, 4/22/2022.”

Early Sunday, as alluded to above, a Buddhist priest who knew Bruce personally wrote on Twitter that “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…”

“The 252-foot oval plaza is up a small flight of steps from the sidewalk on First Street NE outside the court building. The court faces the Capitol across First Street, and is often the site of heated protests and faceoffs between advocates for different causes as the justices consider some of the weightiest and most divisive issues confronting the nation,” the Washington Post explained.

Watch a report aired by CBS D.C. affiliate WUSA, Channel 9:

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33 thoughts on “Climate activist who set himself ablaze on Supreme Court steps succumbs to injuries

  1. I don’t care how strongly you feel about a topic; if your plan to help your cause, is to kill yourself, you have a crappy plan, not to mention no long-term investment or care as to the outcome of said cause. No one who commits suicide is a hero to a cause. It’s unfortunate that he is receiving accolades from dBags who want attention. He was capable of contributing to his cause constructively, not by setting himself on fire – the fact that he was planning this for a year and the subsequent support, tells me that there are people who may be culpable. Again, sorry, but not going to celebrate a suicide. Had someone in his circle intervened, he could have contributed to his cause for years to come…setting himself on fire gets him a moment of attention, until we scroll to the next headline.

  2. Beta male trying to leave a macho legacy. He was trying to be like the Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, Thích Quang Duc, who burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon in 1963. “He was attempting to show that to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms, Buddhism too, needed to have its martyrs.”  This American guy has a load of problems and this was suicide. He wanted to be a martyr- now he is just dead and has traumatized a bunch of people.

  3. I’m shocked at the blatant disregard for Mother Earth! I thought you wanted to STOP the use of FOSSIL FUELS!
    To the next suicidal snowflake:
    Forget gasoline! Bash your brains out with a wind generator propeller, or lie on solar panels until you cook.
    I swear…these kids can’t think for themselves!

  4. Doesn’t burning yourself cause air pollution, definitely helping climate change. What an idiot!!!

  5. I’m sure that the climate change gods, which reside inside the sun and are responsible for the solar flares, etc., that affect our climate, will be so moved by this man’s death that they will take immediate action to rein it in. After all, he was a “climate change activist,” and the climate change gods should not want his death on their conscience. /s

  6. Too bad he died for nothing. Nothing except the natural cycle of the climate. What a dumb azz.

  7. Self-immolation as a form of protest is nothing new. I cannot wrap my brain around that mentality though.

  8. Meanwhile all the people screeching about climate change like Obama just built a multi-million mansion on the coast.

  9. It’s sad that a person gets so brainwashed over a NOTHING BURGER that he would COMMIT SUICIDE! NONE of previous “CATACLYSMIC PREDICTIONS” have come to pass so basically it’s nonsense! The IRONY is that his act of “protest” actually CONTRIBUTED to global warming!!

  10. Like setting myself on fire and dying matters to Slo Joe, Kumswallow, Mr. Turtle Man, Perloser, etc. I think NOT. A waste.

  11. “This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis.” No. This is mental illness.

  12. Climate lunatics call this a “deeply fearless act of compassion”.

    What it REALLY is a deeply ignorant act of stupidity.

    I hope that dumba$$ was wearing his mask.

  13. So let me get this straight. You are upset because it’s getting too hot here on planet earth so you are gonna start a fire by setting yourself ablaze? The woman is right this wasn’t suicide it was shear stupidity. Why did he wait a whole year if this was so important to him? Did he finally figure out that he can’t control the weather or did he finally figure out that global warming and climate change are a ruse and he had been duped? Oh well I wonder if Al Gore misses this guy

  14. How much carbon did this ass release into the environment? Couldn’t he find a more environmentally correct way to kill himself?

  15. Yeah, he was smart alright. He set himself on fire while polluting the environment. Moron. Good riddance.

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