A 26-year-old woman, Bethany MaGee, was set on fire by a career criminal, Lawrence Reed, on a Chicago CTA Blue Line train on Nov. 17. Friends and neighbors describe her as kind, hardworking, and from a loving, small-town family. The incident has sparked discussions on crime and the release of repeat offenders.
Authorities have charged Reed with a terrorist attack or violence against a mass transportation system, citing his intentional use of gasoline and a lighter to attack MaGee. The White House has criticized left-wing policies in deep-blue cities, calling them a failure in community safety. MaGee’s family and community are keeping her in their thoughts and prayers as she remains in critical condition in a hospital burn unit.
The alleged attacker, 50-year-old Lawrence Reed, has spent decades cycling through the criminal justice system and was out on bond at the time of the assault. Reed had been ordered onto electronic monitoring on Aug. 30, when Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez denied a prosecution request to keep him jailed on felony allegations that he knocked a social worker unconscious inside MacNeal Hospital’s psychiatric ward. During that hearing, transcripts show Molina-Gonzalez told prosecutors,