Chicago Train Fire Victim Identified

The 26-year-old woman who cops said was set on fire by a lunatic with a lengthy rap sheet on a Chicago L train earlier this month has been identified as Bethany MaGee.

“It is devastating that a career criminal with 72 PRIOR ARRESTS is now accused of attacking 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on Chicago’s L train, and setting her on fire,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media Sunday.

“This would never have happened if this thug had been behind bars. Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the streets,” Duffy said of suspect Lawrence Reed, 50, who is facing federal terrorism charges in connection with the senseless fire attack.

“Chicago’s carelessness is putting the American people at risk. No one should ever have to fear for their life on the subway,” Duffy said, lambasting the Windy City’s soft-on-crime policies that let a dangerous convicted felon roam free.

Reed approached MaGee, who was sitting with her back to the crazed firebug on the train in downtown Chicago around 9 p.m. on Nov. 17, according to the criminal complaint.

He then removed the cap from a bottle of liquid, pouring it all over her head and body. MaGee fled for her life, but Reed caught up with her and set the bottle on fire, which fell to the floor, but he allegedly retrieved it and used it to set her ablaze.

She was engulfed in flames but somehow managed to exit the train before collapsing on the platform, where good Samaritans stepped in to help her and she was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, according to the complaint.

Reed was spotted on surveillance footage at a Chicago gas station purchasing gasoline, which he put into a plastic beverage bottle roughly 20 minutes before the attack.

He was arrested the next day and hit with federal terrorism charges, which could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Reed has 22 prior arrests since 2016 alone, and 53 criminal cases in Cook County dating back to 1993 — nine of them felonies for which he pleaded guilty, officials said.

However, he’s only served time twice, spending just 2.5 years behind bars in total, according to CWB Chicago.

According to court records viewed by the outlet, Reed was released with an electronic ankle monitor in August after knocking a social worker out cold at a psychiatric hospital where he had been committed. He left her with “likely optic nerve damage and a concussion, causing her to experience memory issues, headaches, and daily nausea,” a detention petition viewed by the outlet read in part.

Prosecutors asked Reed to remain locked up, but a judge overruled them, leaving him with free rein for much of the week.

At a hearing on Friday, prosecutors asked the court to keep him in custody, arguing he “presents a clear danger and persistent threat of terror to the community,” ABC News reported.

“The state court system has been unable to contain defendant’s violent crimes, and federal intervention is now needed,” US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros wrote in the government’s detention motion.

“Lawrence Reed had no business being on the streets given his violent criminal history and his pending criminal cases,” ATF Special Agent-in-Charge Christopher Amon said at a press conference following Friday’s hearing.

“Reed had plenty of second chances by the criminal justice system and as a result you have an innocent victim in the hospital fighting for her life.”

He remains behind bars at the Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to court documents.

Reed’s deranged behavior was on full display at his initial court appearance Wednesday, during which he caused frequent disruptions by “singing, babbling, and instructing the Court not to speak to him,” Boutros wrote.

He also attempted to interrupt the proceedings by repeatedly shouting “I plead guilty!” as the judge tried to read him his rights, and repeatedly yelled over the judge that he was a Chinese citizen and wanted to represent himself, according to local reports.

The CTA attack has drawn grim parallels to September’s brutal caught-on-camera knife murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who was killed while minding her own business on a Blue Line train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Zarutska was savagely butchered by Decarlos Brown Jr. 34, a diagnosed schizophrenic, who was free on cashless bail after a magistrate released him on a “written promise” to show up for court — despite a nearly 20-year history of violence and mental illness.