Chicago’s top prosecutor says Lawrence Reed’s attack on 26-year-old ‘never should have happened’
Lawrence Reed, 50, has been charged with terrorism
Benedict Smith US Reporter
02 December 2025
By the age of 50, Lawrence Reed had been arrested 72 times. His charges stretched back at least three decades.
Reed notched up number 73 earlier this month, when he allegedly set a young woman called Bethany MaGee on fire on a Chicago train, leaving her severely injured.
He watched as the 26-year-old was engulfed in flames and walked off when the train doors finally opened, and she collapsed on the platform, prosecutors claim. Later, while being taken into custody, he allegedly shouted “burn b—-” and “burn alive b—-.”
Critics, including Donald Trump, the US president, condemned the attack as the latest in a litany of cases of career criminals being allowed to roam the streets and potentially harm innocent victims because of misguided soft-on-crime policies.
One particular example stands out.
In August, Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, was travelling home from work on the light rail system in Charlotte, North Carolina, when she was allegedly stabbed by Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, who had been arrested 14 times previously.
Stanislav Nikulytsia, Zarutska’s former boyfriend, said of the Chicago attack: “Seventy-two prior arrests sounds like a joke. I guess 72 times was not enough to understand who he is.”
“Why [do] they always wait for them to do something like that to start doing something to prevent it?”
That question is once again being asked around the country as Ms MaGee recovers in hospital.
Court documents submitted by prosecutors state Reed, who has been charged with terrorism for what they labelled a “horrific and gruesome attack”, had been arrested at least 72 times over the last 30 years.
He had around 15 convictions, eight of them felonies for crimes including arson, drug trafficking, drug possession and criminal damage to government property.
For at least three of those felonies, one of which involved lighting a fire outside a state government building, he was sentenced to a term of probation.
At the time Reed is alleged to have attacked Ms MaGee, he was facing charges of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm after hitting an individual at a hospital.
Over the objections of prosecutors, Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez had released him with an ankle monitoring tag, which was subsequently removed by another judge.
“This was a tragedy,” said Eileen O’Neill Burke, Chicago’s top prosecutor. “It never should have happened.”
Arrest records from Chicago’s police department show Reed was arrested a dozen times between 2017 and 2024 on charges ranging from several counts of battery, to arson, to criminal trespass. Each mugshot shows Reed’s hair growing progressively longer and greyer.
In 2021, he was charged with battery after he punched a woman who had been standing outside her office in the Chicago Loop, the city’s centre.
Amy Eck, whose face was “pretty swollen” after the alleged attack, told local media her case was dropped because authorities convinced her Reed was mentally ill.
“I thought… it was for real, and he’s really going to take it seriously,” she said. “I don’t understand how he’s walking out like a free man and is able to continue to do this to people. It made me angry.”
By the age of 50, Reed had been convicted of arson and charged, repeatedly, with attacking people.
On Nov 17, at around 9pm, according to prosecutors, Reed headed to a petrol station and filled a small container with gasoline, before walking to a blue line stop on Chicago’s “L” train system.
By coincidence, Zarutska had been riding Charlotte’s blue line when she was stabbed to death a few months earlier.
Security footage shows Reed, wearing dark clothes with a grey hoodie, sitting down at the back of a train compartment, while Ms MaGee is seated in the middle, facing away from him.
A short time later, he allegedly approached her, unscrewing the container and dousing the 26-year-old in a flammable liquid.
Ms MaGee somehow managed to fight off the much larger man as he allegedly tried to set her alight, fleeing to the rear of the compartment.
Her attacker pursued, igniting the remnants of the liquid in the container and setting her on fire. According to court documents, he then ran off to a safe distance to watch her burn.
Ms Magee, covered in flames, rolled around on the compartment floor in a desperate attempt to extinguish the fire. She was still burning when she tumbled out of the train at the Clark and Lake Street stop and collapsed on the platform, where she was helped by passers-by.
Reed, whom police said had sustained burns to his right hand, allegedly walked away and was arrested soon after.
At a hearing this month, Reed disrupted the proceedings by singing, babbling and instructing people not to speak to him, according to court documents.
Successfully arguing he should be detained before his trial, federal prosecutors said they needed to intervene because the state had been unable to contain Reed’s “violent crimes”, calling him a “persistent threat of terror to the community”.
“Defendant has been leniently treated in state court… In exchange for such lenient treatment, defendant has consistently re-offended and delved further into criminality,” they argued.
“He is simply too dangerous for pre-trial release.”
‘Soft-on-crime insanity’
Mr Trump’s administration, which deployed National Guard troops to Chicago in October, has pinned the blame for the attack on Brandon Johnson, the city’s mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor.
“Seventy-two arrests wasn’t enough – Democrats let him burn her alive,” the White House said in a recent statement, accusing the party of “sick, soft-on-crime insanity”.
“Delusional politicians like Pritzker and Johnson arrogantly double down on the same failed policies that handed a violent thug a can of gasoline and a match,” it claimed.
In 2021, following the Black Lives Matter protests, Mr Pritzker signed a bill eliminating cash bail and restricting pre-trial detention to those accused of a select number of serious offences, unless prosecutors are able to show otherwise.
While her story becomes part of an ugly political battle, and Reed awaits trial, Ms MaGee is quietly recovering in hospital from her severe burns.
Her family, who have declined media requests for interviews, paid tribute to the 26-year-old as “sensitive, caring, intelligent, and imaginative”.
She “loves” Chicago and “enjoys playing tabletop and video games”, they said in a statement, while “her gentle spirit makes her a favourite with every pet she meets”. One widely circulated image shows her grinning at the camera as she cradles a grey-haired cat in her arms.
“He watched as the 26-year-old was engulfed in flames and walked off when the train doors finally opened, and she collapsed on the platform, prosecutors claim. Later, while being taken into custody, he allegedly shouted “burn b—-” and “burn alive b—-.”
There is another monster; a serial killer who is one of the most evil in history, whose fans gloat every time he burns a Ukrainian alive. He wears a business suit instead of a hoodie. He is indistinguishable from the devil. He laughs as Ukrainians burn to death. He laughs as his slaves rape, torture, kidnap and murder children.
“Stanislav Nikulytsia, Zarutska’s former boyfriend, said of the Chicago attack: “Seventy-two prior arrests sounds like a joke. I guess 72 times was not enough to understand who he is.”
“Why [do] they always wait for them to do something like that to start doing something to prevent it?”
One million + murders and still no one does anything to prevent putler. Would Krasnov give this Reed creature a red carpet, some land and a shitload of money to reward him for his savagery?
“Seventy-two arrests wasn’t enough – Democrats let him burn her alive,” the White House said in a recent statement, accusing the party of “sick, soft-on-crime insanity”.
“Delusional politicians like Pritzker and Johnson arrogantly double down on the same failed policies that handed a violent thug a can of gasoline and a match,” it claimed.”
Isn’t the GOP under Krasnov also guilty of sick, soft-on-crime insanity; albeit on a much more gigantic scale? Isn’t Krasnov guilty of letting Ukrainians burn alive?
Especially when he has the means at his disposal to stop the putler genocide.
“Lawrence Reed, 50, has been charged with terrorism.”
So why hasn’t putler been charged with the same offence?
I ask that question of Obama, Biden and Krasnov.
But of those three, only Krasnov and his crew are guilty of collusion with a terror gang.
“Would Krasnov give this Reed creature a red carpet, some land and a shitload of money to reward him for his savagery?”
Taco would give anyone the red carpet treatment or amnesty if it serves the fat orange crook. He’s pardoned all the criminals that were in prison for storming our Capitol, and other vile creatures. Taco has no morals whatsoever. He raped children and wants to hand a victory to the most evil terrorist on this planet. Never underestimate his heinous depravity.
I’m waiting for that big, beautiful obituary.