Federal authorities say a man with “no business being on the streets” approached a 26-year-old woman scrolling through her phone on a CTA Blue Line train Monday night, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.
And then, 50-year-old Lawrence Reed allegedly watched her burn.
Now, Reed faces a terrorism charge never before brought in Chicago’s federal court, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said Wednesday. Reed has been arrested at least 40 times since 1993, court records show.
The “brutal and vicious” Blue Line attack was captured on surveillance video that’s likely to be made public, Boutros said. He told reporters that, “even as she was on the ground trying to put herself out and is rolling on the ground — desperately trying to put out the fire — no one came to her aid until she was able to get off the train to the platform.”
When Reed appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally on Wednesday, he wore handcuffs and a white covering over his mouth. He shouted over the judge, “I plead guilty! I plead guilty! I plead guilty!” And he insisted he wanted to represent himself in the case.
When informed of the charge against him, Reed asked, incredulously, “terrorism? Is that my charge?” But then, after McNally told him he faced a maximum of life in prison, he replied, “it’s cool, it’s cool, it’s cool.”
McNally set a detention hearing for Friday morning, after a prosecutor argued Reed should be detained to protect the public and ensure he doesn’t flee. That hearing, if it goes forward, could lead to the public airing of surveillance footage of the attack.
But McNally also said Reed should undergo a mental health evaluation.
The case is reminiscent of the stabbing death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a commuter train in Charlotte, North Carolina, which also led to federal charges against a man with a long criminal history. Though Reed currently faces life in prison in the Chicago case, he could become eligible for the death penalty if the victim dies.
Christopher Amon, Chicago’s special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, told reporters that the local victim is in critical condition. Amon also insisted Reed “had no business being on the streets.”
“Reed had plenty of second chances by the criminal justice system,” Amon said. “And as a result, we have an innocent victim in the hospital, fighting for her life.”
The ATF led the investigation into Reed, with help from the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Transit Authority.
A 13-page criminal complaint against Reed lays out the allegations and includes screenshots of surveillance footage from the train. Before the attack, it says Reed was spotted on security footage pumping gas into a small container a little after 9 p.m. Monday at a Citgo in the 3300 block of West Harrison, before walking toward a Blue Line stop.
Then, around 9:24 p.m., surveillance footage from the train car allegedly captured Reed sitting in the far back, while the victim sat in the middle. Reed allegedly then stood up while holding a bottle and walked toward the victim, who had her back toward Reed.
The feds say Reed took the cap off the bottle, poured a liquid all over her head and body, and then tried to ignite her. The victim fought him off and ran to the front of the train as Reed chased her, according to the complaint.
That’s when Reed allegedly ignited what was left in his bottle, dropped the bottle on the floor, picked it up and then used it to light the victim on fire. He then allegedly ran to the front of the train car and “stood watching” the victim “as her body was engulfed in flames.”
The woman, “who was almost fully engulfed in flames, attempted to extinguish herself by rolling on the ground of the train car,” according to the complaint.
It wasn’t until the train stopped at Clark and Lake that she was able to exit before collapsing on the platform, where others stepped in to help her.
Boutros, when asked Wednesday about the other passengers who did not step up to help, said, “I’m sure people were afraid. I’m sure that people did not want to get involved.”
Still, he said, video of the incident is “difficult to watch.”
“It is very disturbing,” he said. “As a young woman was set ablaze and tried to put herself out while other passengers got out of the way or watched.”
Reed already faces an aggravated battery charge in an Aug. 19 attack at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Cook County court records show. He was accused of knocking out a social worker after slapping her in the face while he was a mental patient at the hospital. A judge freed Reed on electronic monitoring.
His next court date is Dec. 4 in that case.
In 2022, he was charged with punching a woman in the face, but the case was dropped.
On April 23, 2020, people saw him pour gasoline on a wall of the Thompson Center at 121 W. Lake Street and light it. Reed, who’d already been convicted of seven felonies, pleaded guilty to arson and was placed on probation. His attorneys told the judge he suffered from mental illness and previously lived with his adult children who helped with his medical care.
In 2020, he was arrested and charged with punching four women in the face on Feb. 28, 2020 near Harold Washington Library in the Loop, but those charges were dismissed, records show.
Under the conditions of his electronic monitoring, Reed was supposed to stay in his South Side residence except for short periods on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. It’s unclear whether he was in violation of his curfew when he allegedly attacked the woman Monday.
The Cook County chief judge’s office, which administers the electronic monitoring program, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.