Staged Event at Obama-House "Man on Fire" - Designed to Take Mirriam Carey MURDER off the News - Black Man Self-Immolates with Partners Nearby Recording 'Event'

[ Man may have been drugged, others dossed him with gasoline, and recorded the event nearby. Victim seems to be genuinley grateful that passerby's "Saved Him" ]

In a bizarre act that capped a nervous few days in Congress, a man poured gasoline on himself and lit himself on fire on the National Mall late Friday afternoon.

Flames and smoke from the self-immolating man near 7th Street and Jefferson Drive, SW, were visible from the Capitol, where some staffers watched the scene from west facing windows, just a day after a car chase that ended with the shooting death of a woman just outside the Hart Senate Office Building.

The incident happened at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday in between the Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery. Passing joggers rushed to the man's aid, several ripping off their shirts to help beat out the flames that burned 80% of his body, ABC reports.

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Passersby who saw the man rushed to his aid, several ripping off their shirts to help put out the flames.

The man reportedly thanked the joggers before he was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center by a U.S. Park Police helicopter that landed on the Mall.

Fire department spokesman Tim Wilson said the man suffered life-threatening injuries, but was conscious and breathing at the scene.

Authorities are now investigating the man's motives.

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'A guy took his shirt off, ran over ... (to) start trying to beat the flames out,' a witness says. 'A couple other joggers also stopped to help.'

"I'm not aware of any signage or any articulation of any causes," said Lt. Pamela Smith of the U.S. Park Police, which has teamed up with the D.C. police department.

Tommy Hess, a tourist visiting his brother, said he was on the Mall, "milling around, because everything is closed due to the shutdown."

"I never expected to see anything like that," Hess said. "It's crazy."

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The man reportedly thanked the joggers who came to his aid before he was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Katy Scheflen, a furloughed civil rights attorney in the Justice Department, said she stopped because she saw "a guy with a tripod set up."

Scheflen said another man, who she thought the tripod with a camera was filming, then took a red can of gasoline, poured it over his head.

"At that point we didn't know what was going, maybe it was some sort of stage protest," Scheflen said. "And then he set himself on fire and went up in flames," she said. "Whoosh."

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