Lawrence Reed has been charged with terrorism after pouring gasoline on 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, then setting her on fire on a Chicago subway train. The woman sustained severe burns to over half of her body and is currently being treated in the hospital for what is bound to be a long recovery. Reports of this horrific story noted that Reed has at least 49 prior arrests, but now it turns out the number is actually drastically higher. He’s been arrested six dozen times since the 1990s.
The Chicago judge who released a man with at least 72 prior arrests before he set a woman on fire on a train has been named. Lawrence Reed, 50, was freed on an ankle monitor after he assaulted a social worker in August. The prosecutor warned Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez that Reed had a long record and his next crime would likely be violent. She said: ‘I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me.’
Reed is now charged with federal terrorism after he poured gasoline on a 26-year-old woman and set her on fire on a Chicago transit train. He walked up to her at random and yelled “burn alive bh.” Did you catch what Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez said? “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me.” That’s literally your job — to keep criminals who deserve to be there in jail!
On Friday, Reed appeared in federal court. It was there that a prosecutor revealed his long criminal history. In addition, he also has a long history of mental illness. Just weeks before the horrific attack, Reed repeatedly violated his curfew, which was part of the terms of his release while pending trial for charges related to assaulting a social worker.
On Friday, a federal magistrate judge ordered Reed held in custody. Reed agreed, asking the judge repeatedly to “just make sure I eat.” A prosecutor called the Blue Line crime “barbaric.” He said the woman burned for a full minute. And he told the judge Reed had been arrested 72 times in 32 years.
This man is clearly deranged and needs to be locked up, far away from society. Once again, the judicial system has failed a young, innocent woman whose life has now been irrevocably changed due to some activist judge refusing to put insane criminals behind bars. The judge who let him out — and so many others who have the same attitude towards criminal justice — need to be held accountable.
