26 year old Chicago woman set on fire by serial thug with 72 prior arrests on a CTA train, was out on bond at time of attack.
Illinois officials have released the identity of a 26-year-old woman who was set on fire earlier this month on Chicago’s L train at the hands of a serial career criminal with over 72 prior arrests.
Bethany MaGee suffered serious burns in the attack but was able to escape. She is expected to be in hospital for at least three months to rehabilitate post surgery.
MaGee, of Upland in Indiana, prior to the attack worked as an analyst for heavy goods giant Caterpillar.
Career criminal charged with federal terrorism following CTA fire attack
Lawrence Reed, 50, who was arrested in the attack now faces federal terrorism charges in connection with fire attack. The career criminal was out on bond at the time of the assault
Posted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on X on Sunday, ‘This would never have happened if this thug had been behind bars. Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the streets.’
Adding, ‘Chicago’s carelessness is putting the American people at risk. No one should ever have to fear for their life on the subway.’
Federal prosecutors allege that Reed intentionally used gasoline and a lighter to set MaGee on fire aboard a CTA Blue Line train at about 9:30 p.m. Monday on on Nov. 17.
According to the criminal complaint, Reed approached Bethany MaGee, who was sitting with her back to the suspect on the train in downtown Chicago, ‘minding her own business and reading her phone’.
Reed then removed the cap from a bottle of liquid, pouring it all over her head and body.
Career felon who was out on bond at time of CTA attack 72 prior arrests
MaGee in turn fled for her life, only for Reed to catch up with the fleeing woman and set the bottle on fire, which fell to the floor, only to allegedly retrieved it and used it to set her ablaze.
She was engulfed in flames but somehow managed to exit the train before collapsing on the platform, where two good Samaritans rushed to help her as she was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to the complaint.
MaGee suffered severe burns to her face and body and remains in critical condition, according to authorities.
Reed was spotted on surveillance footage at a Chicago gas station purchasing gasoline, which he put into a plastic beverage bottle roughly 20 minutes before the attack.
He was arrested the next day and hit with federal terrorism charges, which could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Bond said Friday that Reed has spent 32 years cycling through the criminal justice system, beginning around age 18. He’s been arrested 72 times and has eight felony and seven misdemeanor convictions.
Prosecutors had previously sought no bond for career perp prior to CTA fire attack
Reed has 22 prior arrests since 2016 alone, and 53 criminal cases in Cook County dating back to 1993 — nine of them felonies for which he pleaded guilty, prosecutors said.
However, he’s only served time twice, spending just 2.5 years behind bars in total, according to CWB Chicago.
Records show Reed has a lengthy criminal history, including a charge of felony aggravated arson from April 2020, after he allegedly started a fire at the Thompson Center, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker was holding a daily COVID-19 briefing.
He also faced misdemeanor battery charges for punching multiple women in the face, seemingly at random, and slapping a 42-year-old man in the face at the Halsted CTA Blue Line platform, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Reed was released with an electronic ankle monitor in August after knocking a social worker out cold at a psychiatric hospital where he had been committed. He left her with ‘likely optic nerve damage and a concussion, causing her to experience memory issues, headaches, and daily nausea,’ a detention petition viewed by the outlet read in part.
Prosecutors asked Reed to remain locked up, only for a to judge overrule them and free Reed on ankle monitor.
During Reed’s first appearance in federal court Wednesday, he allegedly shouted, ‘I plead guilty, I plead guilty, I plead guilty.’
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally asked him if he knew the maximum sentence was life in prison, to which he responded, ‘It’s cool, it’s cool, it’s cool.’
Fire attack echoes fatal Blue Line fatal track attack months earlier
At a hearing on Friday, prosecutors asked the court to keep Reed in custody, arguing he ‘presents a clear danger and persistent threat of terror to the community,’ ABC News reported.
‘The state court system has been unable to contain defendant’s violent crimes, and federal intervention is now needed,’ US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros wrote in the government’s detention motion.
‘Lawrence Reed had no business being on the streets given his violent criminal history and his pending criminal cases,’ ATF Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher Amon said at a press conference following Friday’s hearing.
‘Reed had plenty of second chances by the criminal justice system and as a result you have an innocent victim in the hospital fighting for her life.’
The career felon remains behind bars at the Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to court documents.
The CTA attack has drawn grim parallels to September’s brutal caught-on-camera knife murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who was killed while riding on a Blue Line train in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this summer.
Zarutska was stabbed to death by Decarlos Brown Jr. 34, a diagnosed schizophrenic, who was free on cashless bail after a magistrate released him on a ‘written promise’ to show up for court — despite a nearly 20-year history of violence and mental illness.
