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Less than two weeks before Aaron Bushnell walked toward the gate of the Israeli embassy, he had spoken on the phone with a friend about their shared identity as disgruntled, and what risks and sacrifices were necessary to be effective.
>> Watch Aaron Bushnell Fire Video <<
Bushnell, 25, did not mention anything violent or self-sacrificial, his friend said.
Then, on Sunday, Bushnell texted the friend, describing the exchange as a condition to not disclose his name for his protection.
“I hope you understand. I love you,” Bushnell wrote in a message reviewed by The Washington Post. “It doesn’t mean anything, but I feel I’m going to miss you.”
On Sunday, he sent the friend a copy of his will. Inside, he had left his neighbor his cat and his friend a fridge full of root beer.
>> Watch Aaron Bushnell Fire Video <<
Twelve minutes later, Bushnell, a senior airman in the US Air Force, doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire. He had posted a video online saying he did not want to be associated with “massacre.” As he burned, he yelled “Free Palestine.”
Secret service agents extinguished the fire. Bushnell died at the hospital seven hours later.
His suicide immediately garnered praise from some anti-war and Palestinian activists, while others said they were shocked that he would take such an extreme step. But how a Lord of the Rings-loving karaoke enthusiast became an incendiary figure in a military uniform has left some of his closest friends puzzled too.
Wilkins also said that joining the armed forces in Jesus’ Community was common, describing the transition as a move from “a high-control group to another high-control group.”
The Air Force said in a statement Monday night that Bushnell’s death was under investigation by military authorities, following the death of a service member. He was a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and had been in the Air Force since May 2020, the service said.
Luke Barboza, 32, said he met Bushnell in 2022 at an event for a socialist organization in San Antonio. They bonded over their shared politics and started working together to provide clothing and food to the homeless.
“He was angry, and he knew that no one in authority was going to listen to the protesters every week,” Barboza said. “He knew that as a white person and as a member of the armed forces, he had a particular privilege.
San Antonio’s other friends have said that they have divided opinions about Bushnell’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Gaza War for American intervention, but they haven’t indicated any hints about what will happen in Washington on Sunday.
They also said that earlier this year, he went to Ohio to a course for transferred service members from the military. One of his friends, Levi Pierpoint, 23, had met him for lunch in January in Ohio. Over plates of butter chicken, they talked about their involvement in the military and what they wanted to do after leaving the service. Pierpoint said they both were excited about joining the military in May 2020 when they were still in basic training and eager to see how it could help them gain more experience in the world.
Pierpoint said he became disillusioned with the military over time — he was concerned about the ambiguity surrounding violence within the military and felt unsettled — and felt he had gone as a conscientious objector. (The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his account.) In 2024, Bushnell had become more vocal about his objections to the military, Pierpoint said. After the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in May 2020, Bushnell had told Pierpoint he had begun researching the history of the United States and wanted to take a stand against all state-sanctioned violence.