On April 23, 2020, a man poured gasoline around the Illinois state government building in Chicago and set it on fire. The man, identified as Lawrence Reed, age 44, was said to be angry because he had not received his monthly government Supplemental Security Income check.
According to the Chicago news site CWB Chicago, 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 and asked the same thing. Then, according to CWB Chicago, 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."
Even then, police and the larger justice system in Chicago were very familiar with Lawrence Reed. CWB Chicago reported that Reed 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 Feb. 28, 2020."
Even with that record, Reed did not receive any time behind bars for setting the fire at the Thompson Center. Instead, he was sentenced to mental health probation.
Fast-forward to Aug. 19, 2025, 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 CWB Chicago: "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."
The social worker was diagnosed 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.
So, what to do with the suspect? 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, seven misdemeanor convictions -- a total of 32 years in and out of the criminal justice system.
"The defendant poses a real and present threat to the safety of, especially this victim [the social worker], 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."
Molina-Gonzalez 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.
The prosecutor was practically begging 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.
Fast-forward to today. 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 lit her on fire, all the while shouting, "Burn alive, bitch!" 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.
What to make of all this? 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, and also 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.
This content originally appeared on the Washington Examiner at washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/3898591/road-to-chicago-train-fire-attack-lawrence-reed-arrests/.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. Email him at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. For a deeper dive into many of the topics Byron covers, listen to his podcast, The Byron York Show, available on the Ricochet Audio Network at ricochet.com/series/byron-york-show and everywhere else podcasts are found.
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