A Chicago man who allegedly doused a woman with gasoline and set her on fire on Nov. 17 was a “career criminal,” the White House said.
Lawrence Reed, who was arrested for the crime, had 72 previous arrests, including eight felony convictions and seven misdemeanors, according to the White House.
The victim, 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, survived the attack but is “now fighting for her life with horrific burns,” the White House said in a statement.
In court on Monday, Mr. Reed shouted “I'm guilty” three times in a row after the judge warned he could get life in prison on charges that include committing a terrorist attack, according to courtroom reports.
The White House tried to blame the incident on Democrats' policies on crime, calling them “soft.”
Both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago are led by Democrats, and President Donald Trump is currently trying to withhold federal funds from Illinois due to the elimination of “cash bail,” where an arrestee posts a sum of money to be released from prison before trial.
The suspect “got free because of the sweeping and dangerous no-cash-bail law proudly signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and celebrated by Chicago's pro-defund Mayor Brandon Johnson,” the White House said in a statement Tuesday.
Mayor Johnson said in a statement that the attack “was a tragic incident and the mayor is praying for the victim and her family.”
Reed, 50, suffers from mental illness and has been arrested 72 times since he turned 18, according to the Chicago affiliate of BBC News affiliate CBS News.
He was charged with aggravated battery in August for allegedly hitting a social worker, and after his arrest he was released under electronic monitoring over the objections of prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the attack on Ms. MaGee occurred while she was “minding her own business and reading her phone.”
According to the criminal complaint, she was approached by Mr. Reed from the back of the car and then doused her with gasoline before she ran away.
While chasing her, Mr. Reed lit the remaining liquid in the bottle and set Ms. Magee on fire, the complaint said.
Footage of the incident showed Mr Reid watching Ms Magee as she rolled around on the flaming floor trying to put out the fire.
Last week, Mayor Johnson said the attack “should never have happened,” describing it as “an absolute failure of our criminal justice system as well as our mental health facilities.”
He said the suspect was clearly dealing with mental health issues and was a danger to himself and the public.
As a county commissioner, Johnson introduced a nonbinding resolution in 2020 to redirect funds from police and prisons to other government services, but when he ran for mayor in 2023, he vowed not to cut police spending.
