While streaming live on Facebook early Saturday, a Memphis musician doused his body in kerosene before fatally setting himself on fire in what police are calling a suicide.
Media reports say that Jared McLemore, 33, began filming outside Murphy’s Bar before lighting himself on fire and running offscreen into the crowded tavern, where witnesses say he was aflame from head to foot.
The horrifying video has since been removed from Facebook, though the New York Daily News has screenshots from the footage in which McLemore is seen pouring kerosene onto his shirtless torso.
He died from severe burns after being brought to a nearby hospital. Another man sustained burns after attempting to kick a lighter from McLemore’s hand; he is expected to make a full recovery.
"It was the most horrific thing I've seen," says Kim Koehler, who witnessed the incident from inside the bar, where her friend and McLemore’s ex-girlfriend Alyssa Moore works as a sound technician.
“He believed that suicide would be the ultimate revenge on her.” Court records show McLemore had a history of domestic abuse, Fox 13 reports; he was most recently put on probation in April for domestic assault charges after threatening to kill Moore.
A GoFund Me page set up in support of Moore claims that McLemore approached her in the bar before his livestream and wiped her arm down his chest, already slick with kerosene.
His family says he was “struggling with bipolar disorder” for 19 years. Prior to Saturday’s incident, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recognized the network’s need to monitor disturbing live content more vigilantly.
This article originally appeared on Newser: Man Streams Suicide by Fire on Facebook Live
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