A 26-year-old woman, Bethany MaGee, was allegedly set on fire by a repeat offender, Lawrence Reed, on a Chicago CTA Blue Line train. Friends and neighbors describe her as kind, hardworking, and from a close-knit family. Reed, who had multiple arrests and was released on bond, is accused of a terrorist attack on the mass transportation system.
Bethany MaGee is an avid reader and took honors classes at her high school in Indiana, according to a former classmate, Ethan, who spoke to the New York Post. He described her as ‘incredibly smart, very soft spoken, very gentle, and very smart.’ The community in Upland, Indiana, where MaGee and her family reside, is keeping her in their thoughts and prayers as she remains in critical condition at a hospital burn unit following the attack on Nov. 3.
Authorities identified the alleged attacker, 50-year-old Lawrence Reed, as a repeat offender with a long history of cycling through the criminal justice system. He was out on bond at the time of the assault and had been ordered onto electronic monitoring on August 22 after a judge denied a prosecution request to keep him jailed on felony charges of knocking a social worker unconscious in a psychiatric ward.
Court documents reveal that Reed repeatedly violated his curfew and movement restrictions in the days leading up to the alleged attack. The White House responded to the incident by criticizing left-wing policies in deep-blue cities, stating that liberal soft-on-crime policies are failing American communities and endangering law-abiding citizens. A career criminal with 72 arrests should have never been free to roam the streets, the White House wrote on X.
The federal prosecutors allege that Reed intentionally used gasoline and a lighter to set MaGee on fire aboard the train at around 9:30 p.m. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Andrew Boutros, stated that MaGee was minding her own business and reading her phone while seated in the middle of the train car when Reed approached her from behind, doused her head and body with gasoline, and attempted to ignite the liquid.
MaGee ran to the back of the car as he ignited the rest of the liquid in the bottle and then used it to light her on fire, according to the complaint. Her hometown in Indiana, a small community of fewer than 4,000 people, is home to Taylor University. She was raised by a doting family, as noted by a neighbor. A man who identified himself as the victim’s brother at a family home on Monday said, ‘Thanks for stopping by but no comments at this time.’
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Greg Wehner, Alexandra Koch, and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.