The 31-year-old woman walked on crutches into a downtown Portland park. Minutes later, she set herself on fire.

Bystanders put out the fire that consumed Chloe Sagal, but she died from her injuries.

It was an act, witnesses and friends say, that was a political protest as well as a suicide.

"Chloe was brilliant and rarely got a chance to show it," friend AJ Luxton said in an email. "She created enchanting video games, she built things, she volunteered with Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina, she taught herself to read despite severe dyslexia."

Sagal was a game developer and artist who struggled with mental illness for many years. Her friends say she loved dogs, forged authentic weapons and made haunting music when she was able to. They say she was proud of her Romani heritage and an active socialist.

They also say she was the target of an online bullying campaign that derailed her.

Portland Fire and Rescue, the lead investigators on the case, have yet to release a report on the Tuesday incident. Family and friends have confirmed Sagal was the person who died.

Tristan DeWolfe, who grew up with her, in Gurnee, Illinois, said she was "rambunctious."

"We were the kids that always got in trouble for climbing trees or sneaking around," he said.

She was an indie game developer know for creating the game Homesick. And in 2013, Sagal, a transgender woman, became the target of hate mob Kiwi Farms, an online group New Yorker magazine described as "the web's biggest community of stalkers" that "specializes in harassing people they perceive as being mentally ill or sexually deviant in some way."

The harassment began after it was revealed a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Sagal to deal with metal poisoning was actually raising money for her gender surgery.

Friends say Kiwi Farms followers harassed her on a variety of platforms.

A friend who chose not to give his name, fearing repercussions from Kiwi Farms, said her livelihood and mental stability were destroyed by the attacks.

Suicide, said Sagal's friend Jasmine Barlow, "was constantly on her mind. She even attempted once live on streaming video. It was a constant shadow over her art."

"One factor that made it much harder for her to get help was that whenever she talked about suicide," Luxton said, Kiwi Farms members "would report her Facebook page and get it locked down. This had happened multiple times in the month prior to her death."

When she walked into Lownsdale Square, Sagal was in crisis.

Several days before, on Saturday, police had taken her into custody after responding to a report that she wanted to harm herself.

She had a machete when officers arrived, but they defused the situation, according to Sgt. Chris Burley, Portland Police Bureau spokesman.

The police report for Saturday's incident has not been released, but Burley said Sagal was taken by ambulance to Unity Center for Behavioral Health.

What happened to Sagal at Unity has not been publicly disclosed.

"Due to federal privacy protection regulations for patients, we are unable to confirm any information related to any patient at Unity Center," Unity spokeswoman Kristin Whitney said by email.

Luxton, who spoke to Sagal on Monday over the phone, said Sagal "spent two days sitting in triage at the Unity Center; she was never properly hospitalized."

"I had visited the Unity Center with her in March 2017 for about half an hour, and we had given them my information to keep on file as an emergency contact," Luxton added, "so I also theoretically could have been contacted while she was there Saturday or Sunday."

But Luxton was not notified and didn't know Sagal had been taken to Unity until Monday.

When she was released, Sagal apparently had nowhere to go. The people who had been letting her live with them since March had decided they could no longer take care of her.

Friends say she was autistic, had physical difficulties, and struggled with mental illness. Many tried to help her, but they say the systems set up to help people struggling without a home and dealing with mental illness were unable to deal with her larger issues.

"I keep coming back to the fact that she had trouble communicating and approaching people and managing appointments and tasks," Luxton said. "There was no help available to her that did not begin with her having to magically overcome the same developmental disabilities that were hindering her from getting care."

Monday was the last day many of her friends heard from her. She spoke with several friends and left two notes at the house where she had been staying.

One of those notes, the text of which was sent to The Oregonian/OregonLive, appears to be a suicide note.

"Whoever needs my van and the things in it should have it," the note reads. "It's parked around the corner ... the keys are in the mailbox and the title is in the van."

"My death cannot be silent," it continues. "It has to be loud and political. My entire life, my experience, my education has led up to this moment. I can only expect trauma and death from my existence."

Luxton said their partner saw Sagal twice, once around 7 a.m. and once around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. The partner told Sagal that Luxton would be back from California in the late afternoon.

After that, the next time Sagal was seen was walking into the park.

According to a witness, Sagal wore a red scarf around her neck. She sat down in Lownsdale Square at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Main Street, and the papers she was carrying began to blow away. She gathered them, looked at them for several minutes then began to read.

"She was reading a statement about homelessness and mental health issues," Donna Maxey later told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Maxey was sitting in the park across from the Multnomah County Courthouse on the warm afternoon, and she listened to Sagal.

Maxey said she agreed with what Sagal was saying, that people have a right to housing, that when some people go into police custody they end up being abused and hurt, that many people are jailed for crimes of necessity.

By this point, Sagal was screaming her message.

And then "she got out a gallon bottle and poured what looked like dirty water over her head," Maxey said. "I thought maybe she's really hot."

"All of a sudden I saw a blue lighter," Maxey said. And then, Sagal was engulfed in flames.

Another witness, Scot Baughman, sprang into action, ripping his shirt off and attempting to put out the fire.

But it "would just not go out," he said. Soon a sheriff's deputy joined in the effort to put out the fire.

Peter Stratacos, another witness, said he and his business partner had been parked on the side of the park when they realized what was happening. They ran over to Sagal with water.

The water -- or a fire extinguisher, according to another account -- finally put out the fire.

"The person was in shock," Stratacos said, "hyperventilating."

Her skin, he said, was peeled and "bright white."

"We asked them why they'd done it," Stratacos said. "They said it was because they were homeless and they didn't know what else to do."

Sagal was taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital, where she died.

"She was one of the most brilliant, and tortured artists I have ever known," Barlow remembers.

Her family is planning a private out-of-state memorial.

Portland is home to Lines for Life, a nonprofit devoted to suicide prevention throughout the Pacific Northwest. It operates a suicide prevention line that is answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It can be reached at 800-273-8255 or by texting "273TALK" to 839863.

Here are more numbers where help is available:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Multnomah County: 503-988-4888 or 1-800-716-9769

Clackamas County: 503-655-8585

Washington County: 503-291-9111

Southwest Washington: 1-800-626-8137 or 866-835-2755

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker