Note: This article has been edited since its publication at the request of Paul Addis’ mother.
Friends of a man who died at the Embarcadero BART station Saturday night have confirmed his identity as San Francisco artist and performer Paul Addis.
Witnesses say a white male jumped in front of a westbound train at 7:48 Saturday night, BART spokesman Jim Allison said Saturday night.
BART police officers who responded to the scene saw the man under the back half of the train, Allison told the Chron.
Fire Department paramedics arrived and determined that the man was dead, Allison said.
Addis was perhaps best known as the man accused of prematurely setting fire to the Burning Man sculpture in 2007, as an act of protest against the event.
According to a Bay Guardian article from 2010, Addis spent two years in a Nevada prison for the Burning Man incident, during which time he developed a one-man show entitled Dystopian Veneer, which he brought to San Francisco in April of that year.
Several of Addis’ friends reached out to the Appeal in hopes that we would update our earlier story on the events surrounding his death with his name.
Amacker Bullwinkle, a close family friend of Addis’, contacted the Appeal to confirm that he had died at the Embarcadero station Saturday.
According to Bullwinkle, the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office contacted Addis’ mother to confirm his death Saturday.
Bullwinkle says a memorial for Addis is being planned, but did not have details as of Sunday evening.
Photo of Paul Addis: Used with permission of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
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