Chicago train attack suspect repeatedly violated curfew, movement restrictions, records show
The 50-year-old man facing federal terrorism charges for allegedly setting a woman on fire aboard a Chicago train last week had repeatedly violated his court-ordered curfew and movement restrictions stemming from a prior violent offense case, court records show.
Lawrence Reed had been ordered onto electronic monitoring on Aug. 22, 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 while at MacNeal Hospital’s psychiatric ward.
During that hearing, transcripts show Molina-Gonzalez told prosecutors: “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to.”
According to the newly filed document in that battery case, Cook County electronic monitoring records show Reed repeatedly violated his curfew and movement restrictions in the days leading up to the alleged Chicago Transit Authority attack on Nov. 17.
The logs detail multiple instances where Reed left his home with his ankle monitor without authorization, returned late, or triggered “escalated alerts” indicating prolonged or serious non-compliance.
The violations span several dates, including Nov. 9, Nov. 12–13, Nov. 14–15, and Nov. 15 again, with additional alerts on the night of Nov. 17 — the date of the alleged CTA attack.
Reed was riding on the city’s Blue Line L train at around 9 p.m. Nov. 17 when he approached a 26-year-old woman from behind and doused her with gasoline from a plastic bottle, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrest affidavit.
The woman managed to fight Reed off as he attempted to ignite the gas, then ran from one end of the car to the other while Reed continued to chase her, the affidavit said, citing surveillance video from the train. Reed subsequently ignited the bottle, approached the victim and used it to set her on fire, prosecutors said.
Records show some alerts continued into the early morning hours of Nov. 18, roughly three hours after the incident occurred.
Reed’s approved movement schedule under electronic monitoring allowed him to be out only during limited windows: Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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Reed was taken into custody Tuesday morning with burn marks on his hand and wearing the same clothes as the suspect seen in surveillance footage carrying out the attack, the arrest affidavit said.
The victim, later identified as 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, suffered severe burns to her face and body and remains in critical condition, according to authorities.
In April, after the Chief Judge’s Office took over the countywide electronic monitoring program, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke reportedly warned staff in a memo that the office was not prepared for the responsibility and described the program as “a serious threat to public safety.”
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A spokesperson for the Cook County chief judge’s office declined to comment to Fox News on the monitoring violations by Reed.
In a separate filing late last week that Fox News also obtained, Cook County prosecutors moved to revoke Reed’s pretrial release in the August aggravated battery case based on the new federal terrorism charge. If their request is granted, Reed would be held without bond in the county case, regardless of the status of the federal proceedings.
Reed’s next court date in the Cook County aggravated battery case is set for Dec. 4.
In federal court, U.S. District Judge Laura McNally — who on Friday ordered Reed detained pretrial — has not yet set a next date in the terrorism case.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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