Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump’s administration is warning Chicago that it could lose federal transit funding unless city officials strengthen security after a November assault in which a woman was set on fire aboard a train.
Federal Transit Administration Administrator Marc Molinaro sent a letter Monday to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker demanding that the Chicago Transit Authority submit an updated safety plan by Dec. 19. The letter did not detail specific policy changes but cited concerns about public safety.
The warning follows a violent Nov. 17 incident on a Blue Line L train, where a man allegedly doused passenger Bethany MaGee with gasoline from a plastic drink bottle, chased her through the train car, and set her on fire, according to court filings. MaGee, 26, escaped the train but suffered severe burns.
Police arrested 50-year-old Lawrence Reed the next morning. Federal prosecutors charged him with committing a terrorist attack, a crime that carries a potential life sentence. Court records show Reed has a criminal history spanning more than three decades, with more than 60 cases filed since 1993, including at least 15 battery and assault charges and at least two arson cases.
Reed was out on electronic monitoring at the time of the attack, awaiting trial in a case involving an alleged assault on a hospital social worker in August. The Cook County chief judge’s office pointed to state law that sharply limits judges’ ability to detain defendants before trial.
Molinaro called Reed’s release “unconscionable” and said the attack reflected “systemic failures in both leadership and accountability on all levels that cannot be tolerated.”
“I will not accept the brutal assault of an innocent 26-year-old woman as an inevitable cost of providing public transportation,” he wrote.
Chicago and other Democrat-led cities have faced ongoing criticism from Trump. In October, the administration withheld $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, including an expansion of the Red Line, while budget officials reviewed whether contracts were being awarded on a race-neutral basis. The same week, $18 billion for New York infrastructure was also paused.