It seems like every week there’s someone taking their own life while streaming on Facebook or Instagram Live.
33-year-old Jared McLemore died after setting himself on fire while streaming his failed suicide attempt on Facebook Live in a crowded bar Saturday morning.
via NYDN:
The horrifying video shows a shirtless Jared McLemore, 33, sitting on the ground and dousing himself with kerosene. A man off-camera jumps on top of him to try to help him, but McLemore burst into flames. Frantic screams can be heard in the background.
Witnesses said they saw McLemore — who’s a well-known musician in the Memphis area — running into Murphy’s bar on Madison Ave. early Saturday moments after setting himself on fire.
“This overwhelming smell of kerosene filled the room,” Jim Duckworth, a musician who had just played a set at the bar, told WREG-TV. “Before you see anything, the smell filled the room.”
Duckworth’s girlfriend, Kimberly Koehler, described the incident as a “movie” and the victim as someone who was “wearing a flame-retardant suit.”
“There were some people who thought that it was a joke,” she told the TV station.
McLemore’s ex-girlfriend, Alyssa Moore, was just a couple of feet away from the horrendous scene.
“Jared approached Alyssa and mumbled something about ‘goodbye,’ then grabbed her arm and wiped it on his chest to show he was covered in kerosene,” a GoFundMe page set up for Moore’s recovery effort said.
Moore is a self-employed audio engineer, according to the page.
The musician had a history of domestic abuse and even tried to kill Moore before, FOX13 reported.
Court records show he was arrested in August 2016 after strangling Moore and threatening to kill her multiple times, according to WREG.
McLemore faced domestic assault charges and was put on probation in April. He was also ordered to undergo mental health evaluations.
A May 10 Facebook post on his wall read, “Erased and forgotten.” In January he wrote, “Please educate yourself on mental health. Please love each other through sickness.” His page was also filled with tracks he had previously recorded.
Witnesses told WREG that Moore had a restraining order against McLemore, but the musician violated it many times.
When police officers arrived at the scene, they found the victim with severe burns. McLemore was rushed to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. The man who tried to save the victim also suffered burns and was taken to a hospital, but is expected to survive, according to FOX13.
What a painful way to die.
