Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez let Chicago train attacker Lawrence Reed go free with an ankle monitor after 72 arrests.
and set it on fire. The man, identified as Lawrence Reed, 44, was said to be angry because he had not received his monthly government Reed went inside the building, known as the Thompson Center, and asked a worker at a train kiosk where his check was.
Reed left and came back about an hour later, asking the same thing. Then, according to, Reed “allegedly returned a third time at 2:10 p.m. with two red containers. Witnesses reported seeing him walk along the north wall of the Thompson Center while pouring a liquid from the containers. Fire investigators later determined the liquid was gasoline … Reed set the liquid on fire while people were plainly visible inside the building.” police and the larger justice system in Chicago were very familiar with Reed. CWB Chicago reported that he was “on probation for two criminal damage to property convictions” and had “seven felony and 11 misdemeanor convictions as well as two pending misdemeanor cases.” He was also “awaiting trial for allegedly punching two women in the face at random in the Loop on February 28, 2020.” Reed did not receive any time behind bars for setting the fire at the Thompson Center. Instead, he was sentenced to just three months ago. Reed was receiving treatments in the psychiatric wing of MacNeal Hospital in the suburbs of Chicago. He approached a social worker at a nurse’s station. This, again, is from: “As a surveillance camera recorded everything, the social worker was speaking with Reed … when he became irate and slapped the victim in the face with an open palm. Her vision went black and she lost consciousness for several seconds. One of the victim’s co-workers rushed over and helped the victim walk down to her office, and the victim was then taken to the emergency room.” with a corneal abrasion, a serious concussion, and a chipped tooth. Later, doctors determined she had “optic nerve bruising” and was “experiencing headaches and nausea daily and has been experiencing memory issues,” in the words of a prosecutor quoted by CWB Chicago. By 2025, Reed had a much longer criminal record than his already extensive record from 2020. Prosecutors laid it out for Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez: 72 arrests, eight felony convictions, and seven misdemeanor convictions — a total of 32 years in and out of the criminal justice system. to the safety of, especially this victim , whoever else was working in the hospital that day, and the community as a whole,” the prosecutor told Molina-Gonzalez, who appeared to be leaning toward setting Reed free again, this time with an ankle monitor. According to a court transcript obtained by CWB Chicago, the prosecutor continued, “The defendant randomly and spontaneously became irate in this situation where the victim was just attempting to do her job as a social worker, and now as a result, suffered injuries so severe that she still has side effects on a daily basis. There is nothing here indicating that the defendant was provoked. This was a random act, your honor, and electronic monitoring would be wholly insufficient. It could not protect the victim or the community from another vicious, random, and spontaneous act.” rejected that argument and sentenced Reed to go free with the ankle monitor. Upon hearing the decision, the prosecutor objected “based on the serious nature of this criminal offense and evidence presented that tends to prove that the defendant is a threat to the physical safety of the victim and the community,” according to the transcript. Molina-Gonzalez to put Reed behind bars. But the judge was unmoved. “Thank you,” she said. “I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me to.” And so Reed walked free, again, after another violent crime. Reed is finally in jail, charged in a Nov. 17 attack in which police say he doused a young woman with gasoline while on board a Chicago L train. Police say Reed then set her on fire, all the while shouting, “Burn alive, b****!” The woman, 26-year-old Bethany McGee, suffered severe burns and is in critical condition. If she survives, she will face years of painful rehabilitation. Molina-Gonzalez got her way; Reed was free to board the train with his bottle of gasoline, ready to attack. And the prosecutor’s words came true; Reed was indeed a “threat to the physical safety of the community.” And the public was left to contemplate the obvious fact that Reed should have been incarcerated long ago, as well as the fact that Molina-Gonzalez represents something that has gone terribly wrong in the American system of justice. A society that will not take Lawrence Reed off the streets will not protect the public.
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