Chicago Man With 72 Arrests Accused of Setting Woman on Fire
This man should have never been on the street.
A judge ordered Lawrence Reed, 50, to remain in custody until his trial after he allegedly poured gasoline and set a fire on a young girl on a Chicago train.
Reed faces terrorism charges.
Reed should never have been out of prison. He’s been arrested 72 times and convicted 15 times.
The attack happened on November 17. Surveillance video helped identify Reed:
According to surveillance footage from train car #3236, REED stood up from his seat while holding a bottle, walked through the car and approached Victim A, who was seated with her back towards REED. Reed then took the cap off the bottle and poured a liquid from the bottle all over the victim’s head and body. REED then attempted to ignite the liquid. Victim A fought off REED and ran to the front of the train as REED chased Victim A. REED then ignited the bottle in his hand that contained remnants of the liquid that he had poured on Victim A and the bottle fell out of REED’s hand and onto the floor as Victim A then ran to the rear of the train car. Screen captures of the above-described actions appear below:
According to surveillance footage from train car #3236, REED then picked up the bottle that was now on fire, approached Victim A, and lit Victim A on fire using the bottle. REED then ran to the front of the train car and stood watching Victim A as her body was engulfed in flames. Victim A appears below on the far left underneath the train car number “3236” while REED appears on the right holding the flaming bottle.
According to surveillance footage from train car #3236, Victim A, who was almost fully engulfed in flames, attempted to extinguish herself by rolling on the ground of the train car. The train then stopped at the Clark and Lake Street Blue Line platform and Victim A while still on fire, was able to exit the train before collapsing on the train platform, where she was tended to by individuals on the platform. At the same time, REED exited the train car and walked away from the scene.
Thank goodness the victim escaped, and two people helped her out on the platform.
Officials “collected a partially melted bottle, a lighter, a clear suspected ignitable liquid from a passenger seat from where Victim A had been seated, and the burned remains of what appeared to be some of Victim A’s clothing.”
Again, Reed should not have been on the street:
Records show that Reed had previously been arrested 72 times in Cook County alone and convicted in 15 of those cases, the feds said in court papers.
One of those busts included an aggravated arson charge, in which he was accused of dousing the city’s Thompson Center government building with liquid and setting it on fire just as Gov. J.B. Pritzker was due to speak at a press conference, cops said.
But the maniac never served any time and was only given probation despite being convicted of the arson incident in April 2020, court documents show.
At the time of this week’s fiery horror, Reed was out on electronic home monitoring stemming from an alleged incident where he knocked a hospital social worker unconscious in August.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted Chicago:
It is devastating that a career criminal with 72 PRIOR ARRESTS is now accused of attacking 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on Chicago’s L train, and setting her on fire.
This would never have happened if this thug had been behind bars. Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the streets.
Chicago’s carelessness is putting the American people at risk. No one should ever have to fear for their life on the subway.
It is devastating that a career criminal with 72 PRIOR ARRESTS is now accused of attacking 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on Chicago’s L train, and setting her on fire.
This would never have happened if this thug had been behind bars. Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the… https://t.co/1vaHyCd8sp
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 23, 2025
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Comments
Not every human life is so precious it must be preserved at all costs.
Rehabilitation can fail. Do we simply throw up our hands and say we did all we could while evil lurks? Or do we make hard choices to protect innocent lives?
Forget walking the streets. How is a man with 72 arrests allowed to live?
Incinerate this rodent.
It’s Chicago and he only had 72 arrests? Give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
If the dram shop law can hold bars responsible if they serve alcohol to an intoxicated individual who goes on to harm others why can’t a similar law be put in place for judges? If a judge releases an individual who hurts or kills someone else why can’t they be held liable?
And maybe you have to bound it like “If a judge releases someone with 5 or more violent arrests and that individual commits another violent crime the judge can be held liable.”
It seems to me we are hearing more and more about these violent offenders who get let off by woke judges with a slap on the wrist going on to commit another horrific crime. Maybe if the judge was liable we’d see less of this.
Another article elaborated a little more on his present circumstances regarding the ankle monitor:
So, he was in the loony bin, attacked a social worker there, and was then released with an ankle monitor ….
He almost killed the lady at Macneal Hospital. Severe head injuries.
It’s once again time to remind everyone that the reason we have a criminal justice system is to protect those accused of crimes from the whims of vigilantes who might otherwise drag the accused from his jail cell and offer him a long drop with a short rope.
But this bargain must be respected in both sides of the equation.
When human excrement like this have no respect for the law and no respect for themselves, and the justice system isn’t interested in removing him from the public after far too many arrests.
It won’t be long until people take matters back into their own hands, justice be damned.
Prayers up for that poor woman.
The reason we have a government at all is to protect the citizens. Failure to protect them from a flame wielding dirtbag, or a stupid anti-American Antifa member, or a crazed ignorant Islamist, or a violent criminal illegal alien, or an expansionist country like Russia or China violates the basic pact between government and citizen. Such failures call into question the very existence of the failing government.
Exactly. We don’t go after offenders ourselves because the social compact we’ve entered into leaves justice in the hands of the government. When the government fails, people will take care of business themselves because we can’t live in a stable, free society if people like that are allowed to roam free.
Good ole Crook County sinking Illinos 1 day at a time.
Lincoln had the best idea. Colonize them all outside of the United Staes. The pics of perp and victim say it all- not the same species. .
Go to hell, KKKluxer. We’re not going to start deporting black people. And yes, we are the same species.
A terrible crime, that woman is marked the rest of her life.
A life is as only precious as that person respects lives of others.
Homeboy was charged with KO his Social Worker in a viscous attack yet the Judge refused to follow the prosecution motion to hold this guy. Days later he sets someone on fire. Build the damn prison/jail space to hold the violent away from society. If not then at least work with the Trump Admin to bring in outside assistance in Chicago and other big blue Cities to charge, find and arrest them on Federal violations. If that’s too much then get out of the way of the Citizens protecting themselves by exercising their 2A rights. Of course these d/prog leaders, those who finance them and those who prosper under sinecure jobs/machine patronage won’t allow any of those things, instead they’ll likely allow the criminals and Cray Cray to continue to run loose to prey on ordinary Citizens b/c IMO, based on their indifferent lack of realistic reforms, they really don’t care. Sooner or later the ordinary Citizens of these big blue jurisdictions gonna have to choose to leave, to stay and vigorously demand reform until they get it or roll over and continue to take it.
Every judge who let this unhinged maniac out on the street, needs to serve a sentence right alongside him. DA’s who refuse to prosecute can sit in a cell right next to them as well.
Put them in the same cell as Reed.
Nah if we get that option put them in with Diddy so they can experience the freakoff.
Nice sentiment but no matter how appealing that is to is to us it ain’t gonna happen.
How do people even live in Chicago? I mean just the thought that criminals like this are allowed to roam the streets, but the local government won’t let people be armed or defend themselves. It just gives me a headache.
We have friends that live in a nice neighborhood in Chicago. They can’t believe we voted for President Trump. Die hard liberals. I used to like visiting there staying in the loop area. Haven’t been there in 15 years. Why? Because the gang bangers and crazies have taken over. Not to mention the almost weekly get together by the tribal youth resulting in riots.
This one is on woke judges and not a woke prosecutor for a change. After this perp clocked the social worker, the prosecutors did their job and asked that he be detained. “Thank you,” replied [Judge] Molina-Gonzalez. “I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to, but I understand and respect your position.” Source: CWBChicago
If Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez thought Reed wasn’t a threat, she should have housed him herself in her personal home. That should be the criteria… if you wouldn’t take them home to live with your family members and pets, they can’t be foisted on the rest of us.
Social Worker. And that nutjob muslim in NYC wants to replace police with social workers.
I think that the most important thing about this dangerous man is not that he is a criminal, but that he is what used to be called “criminally insane.”
Certain subcategories of the mentally ill are much more likely to commit violent crimes than the average citizen or the mentally ill in general. Particularly if they use drugs and alcohol
Back in the days of easier civil commitment–and of non-prison institutions dedicated to the confinement of the violent mentally ill–someone with this man’s history would have been taken off the streets and his escalating trajectory of violence interrupted before it reached this horrific level.
I’m not saying the judges who put this man on the street again and again are blameless. Leftist judges live in a cloud cuckoo land of ideals which, when not attained, are prima facie evidence that it is malice and structural oppression that keeps the ideals from being attained, and that any structurally oppressive society must be destroyed.
If moving that along means that everybody on the streets and subways–who, just by existing and living a normal life contributes to the oppression of LBGTQ/POC/etc etc– has to be in danger of crazies with gasoline and a match, well, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. That’s where Leftist judges are happy to make their contribution to the mess.
All of the “judges” that let him free need to be held accountable.
Every prosecutor that plead any of his offenses to lesser offenses to ensure no jail time, likewise held accountable.
What’s sick is that this is mainstream Democrat Party Policy: Never incarcerate any criminals.
Of course, any citizen that dares defend themself against a monster like this, they’ll throw the book at.
Tried?
We are going to waste money on a trial for a man whose crime is recorded on video? Whose crime we can all watch?
He did it. There he is, doing it.
We don’t need a trial.
We need an execution.
I suspect that in the future, the near future, we will see street justice employed. Not just on animals like this fellow that set that woman on fire or the one that stabbed that lady to death not too long ago, but the judges and the woke prosecutors that keep flooding them onto the street.
Hostis Humanis. No doubt he’s guilty. Immediate execution. Ancient law of the sea. Take to the nearest veterinarian and give him a shot. I don’t buy the insanity crap. He knew he was committing a crime.
“The victim, a 26-year-old woman, remains in critical condition with severe burns at Stroger Hospital following the attack on November 17, 2025. She sustained extensive injuries, including severe burns across her upper torso and half of her scalp burned off, according to a witness. As of the latest updates on November 19–20, 2025, she was still hospitalized and fighting for her life. U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros stated that if she were to die from her injuries, the suspect could face the death penalty.”
And we all know what a load of baloney that is. Reed’s Public Defender will simply move that be given a mental health evaluation where he will predictably be found mentally incompetent to stand trial and the judge hearing the case will place him into a mental health facility until such time he is deemed competent to stand trial and participate in his defense. Of course, that will be years down the legal road if it ever happens. But we have to protect the sacred rights of the perpetrator, right? Right?!??