Samuel Hervey, a 25-year-old in the throes of a severe mental health crisis, positioned his phone so its camera would capture the gruesome spectacle that was about to unfold. The Minnesota native stepped into the frame of the video live stream, his long hair spilling from the hood of a white sweatshirt. He sat down cross-legged and emptied a plastic bottle filled with gasoline onto his head and his clothing.
Then he lit a flame..
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He was suicidal and needed help. Online predators pushed him to take his life on camera.
The death of a Minnesota man offers a case study into how a sadistic online group has used the messaging app Discord to find and torment vulnerable people