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The deranged profession felony charged with setting a lady on fireplace on a Chicago prepare final month has been indicted on an extra cost for allegedly making an attempt to torch Metropolis Corridor simply days earlier.
Lawrence Reed, 50, “maliciously broken and tried to break and destroy” Chicago’s Metropolis Corridor constructing on Nov. 14, prosecutors alleged in court docket information launched Thursday.
Fortunately, the hearth didn’t unfold past the preliminary flames and didn’t trigger injury, Mayor Brandon Johnson has stated.
Three days after the Metropolis Corridor fireplace, Reed allegedly doused a 26-year-old commuter with an accelerant and set her ablaze whereas aboard a CTA prepare.
His arrest for that sickening prepare assault triggered nationwide outrage when it emerged he was a felon with greater than 70 arrests who was solely free as a result of he’d been given bail for allegedly knocking out a psychiatric employee weeks earlier.
The prepare firebug was sitting at the back of a Chicago Blue Line L automobile when he approached the lady, later recognized as “mushy spoken” Bethany MaGee, who had her again to him — after which poured gasoline from a plastic bottle on her head and physique, in keeping with an arrest affidavit.
MaGee fought off the attacker, working from one finish of the automobile to a different — till Reed allegedly then ignited the bottle, setting Magee on fireplace, in keeping with the affidavit.
She was engulfed in flames however one way or the other managed to hop off the prepare, collapsing on the platform the place good Samaritans helped her.
She was rushed to the hospital in crucial situation, struggling burns on greater than 60% of her physique.
When he was arrested, Reed allegedly shouted, “Burn alive, bitch.” He stays behind bars on federal terrorism expenses, which carry a most penalty of life in jail.
Reed has greater than 70 prior arrests, together with felonies for which he pleaded responsible, officers stated. Nevertheless, he’s solely served time twice, spending simply two and a half years behind bars in whole.
He was out on pretrial launch on the time of the assault after allegedly knocking a psychiatric hospital employee out chilly in August. Prosecutors had requested Reed stay locked up, however a choose overruled them — leaving him free to roam the streets.
He was busted 72 occasions in Cook dinner County alone and convicted in 15 of these instances, federal prosecutors stated.
A type of busts included an aggravated arson cost, by which he was accused of dousing town’s Thompson Heart authorities constructing with liquid and setting it on fireplace simply earlier than Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was as a result of give remarks at a press convention.
With Put up wires
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