Who was Aaron Bushnell, US airman who set himself ablaze outside Israeli embassy?

A US military service member, Aaron Bushnell, set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on Sunday, in an apparent protest against the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Donning military attire, Bushnell recorded himself shouting ‘Free Palestine’ before immolating himself, claiming the Israeli actions in Gaza is a ‘genocide’. Despite swift intervention by the Secret Service, Bushnell later died.

The Air Force’s 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing said Bushnell was a cyber defense operations specialist. Bushnell served with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron, it said.

Who is Bushnell?

Bushnell, originally from San Antonio, Texas, was raised in Massachusetts and went to public schools on the Cape Cod peninsula, according to a BBC report. The Nauset Public School system confirmed in a statement that he was a pupil in its system from 2003 to 2007, and from 2013 to 2014.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bushnell was also an ‘aspiring software engineer’ who had worked for a San Antonio-based company called DevOps from March 2023 until this month.