Chicago's Blue Line: Serial Offender Freed on Ankle Monitor Lights Woman on Fire

Chicago, IL – November 23, 2025  

A 26-year-old woman was doused in gasoline and set ablaze on a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train this week—allegedly by a hardened serial criminal with 72 prior arrests, who had been cut loose on an ankle monitor just months earlier despite prosecutors' dire warnings. The brazen attack, captured on chilling surveillance footage, has drawn haunting parallels to the August stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina commuter rail, fueling a firestorm of criticism against "soft-on-crime" policies in blue cities.

The victim, identified as Bethany MaGee, a data analyst commuting home after a long day, was scrolling through her phone around 9:25 p.m. Monday near the bustling Clark/Lake station in the Loop when her nightmare unfolded. According to a federal criminal affidavit, 50-year-old Lawrence Reed approached her without provocation, screaming "burn alive bitch" before pouring a flammable liquid from a plastic bottle over her head and igniting it with a lighter. MaGee, engulfed in flames, fled to the back of the train car in terror as passengers scrambled to extinguish the blaze with jackets and water bottles. She was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with severe second- and third-degree burns to her upper body, face, and arms; as of Sunday, she remained in stable but critical condition, her family said in a statement, pleading for privacy amid the "unfathomable trauma."

Investigators wasted no time zeroing in on Reed, a Chicago native whose rap sheet reads like a grim chronicle of unchecked recidivism: 72 arrests dating back three decades, including 13 felony convictions for battery, theft, and drug possession. Just 20 minutes before the attack, security footage from a nearby gas station showed him methodically filling a small container with gasoline—evidence prosecutors say proves the assault was no impulsive act, but a premeditated act of terror. Federal authorities swiftly slapped Reed with a single count of arson in furtherance of a violent crime, a charge carrying a potential life sentence, after he reportedly shouted "I plead guilty!" repeatedly during his initial court appearance Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally. In a federal lockup for the first time, Reed—handcuffed and masked—showed no remorse, even as the judge struggled to read him his rights.

The case's most infuriating twist lies in Reed's recent brush with the Cook County court system. In late August, he was charged with aggravated battery after allegedly slapping and knocking unconscious a social worker at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, where he was receiving psychiatric treatment. Despite the victim's pleas and a prosecutor's stark prediction that Reed's next offense would be "likely violent" and "random," Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez overruled the objection, opting instead to release him on electronic monitoring. "I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to," the judge reportedly replied, according to court transcripts obtained by local outlets. The order allowed Reed to roam freely from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays—far from the "24/7" lockdown implied in clerk notes—leaving him unchecked on that fateful Monday evening.

Outrage poured in from all quarters, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasting the decision on X (formerly Twitter) as emblematic of urban decay: "This horrific attack is EXACTLY why we need communities to take safety seriously. Blue cities cannot allow another Iryna Zarutska to happen." Duffy's post, which garnered over 500,000 views in hours, amplified a growing chorus decrying bail reform measures that critics argue prioritize offenders over victims. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, facing mounting pressure, issued a measured response Friday, calling the incident "mind-boggling" and vowing a review of monitoring protocols, though he stopped short of directly addressing the judge's ruling. "We must balance justice with humanity," Johnson said at a press conference, drawing jeers from victims' advocates in the crowd.

Zarutska's murder looms large over the story, a spectral reminder of transit terror's toll. The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, who had fled war-torn Kyiv just months earlier, was randomly stabbed to death on August 22 aboard a Charlotte Area Transit System light rail train by Decarlos Brown Jr., 34—a suspect with his own litany of violent priors and mental health struggles, released on cashless bail days before the attack. Brown now faces federal murder charges, but Zarutska's death became a rallying cry for tougher enforcement, spotlighted by the Trump administration as evidence of Democratic-led cities' crime crises. "From Charlotte to Chicago, the pattern is clear: Repeat predators walk free, and innocent lives burn," said Illinois Policy Institute researcher Orphe Divounguy, whose group documented 1,356 crimes on CTA lines in the year ending September 2024—one every three hours.

This is no isolated inferno. Chicago's subways have simmered with violence: a fatal shooting of four passengers in 2024, a deadly stabbing in June, and echoes of New York City's December 2024 subway immolation of a sleeping woman. MaGee's survival—doctors credit quick-thinking bystanders—offers a sliver of solace, but her family's GoFundMe has already raised over $150,000 for medical bills and therapy. 17GEN4.com