The man who allegedly lit a woman on fire on a Chicago train is being investigated for another blaze that broke out at City Hall.
50-year-old Lawrence Reed is accused of drenching a 26-year-old woman with an accelerant and setting her on fire during a heated confrontation on the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line on Monday night.
The victim, who has not been named, remains in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
The assault marks only the latest incident in what records describe as a staggering criminal history stretching back more than three decades.
Despite accumulating 53 criminal cases in Cook County since 1993, including nine felony convictions, Reed has served just two and a half years behind bars.
Court filings show 22 arrests since 2016 alone, most resulting in minimal penalties.
One of the most recent accusations occurred in August, when Reed allegedly knocked a social worker unconscious inside a psychiatric hospital where he had been committed.
A detention petition detailed the woman’s injuries as including “likely optic nerve damage and a concussion, causing her to experience memory issues, headaches, and daily nausea.”
Prosecutors argued he should remain detained, but a judge disagreed and authorized electronic monitoring.
Records reviewed by CWB Chicago indicate that although a clerk noted Reed needed 24-hour home monitoring, the judge’s order allowed him to leave his residence between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays.
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His allowable hours in society loosened even more a few weeks later when a different judge authorized more time in public on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Now, detectives are examining whether Reed may also be tied to a fire that erupted inside Chicago City Hall on Friday, days after the CTA attack.
ABC 7 reported that surveillance footage captured an individual who resembles the accused train attacker lighting the fire at City Hall.
Investigators are currently gathering higher-quality video to determine if the same person was present at both scenes.
The case unfolds during a broader pattern of violence on and around Chicago’s transit system.
Just last week, 37-year-old Derek Rucker received a prison sentence related to a string of random assaults on CTA platforms and nearby streets.
Rucker faced six felony charges involving aggravated battery for attacks that targeted several women and a police officer. He pleaded guilty to all the charges and was sentenced this week.
According to authorities, his latest arrest took place in early October after he punched a 44-year-old woman on State Street.
Police reports describe a lengthy pattern of violent behavior, including beating a police officer, punching women in the face, spitting on a victim and hitting another woman in the back of the head on a CTA platform.
Though his criminal history stretches back to 2006, most past charges were misdemeanors involving battery, assault, trespassing and theft.
Elsewhere in the city, a disturbing viral video has drawn public outrage after showing a mother and her two young children being assaulted by a crowd of youths outside Orville Bright Elementary School.
The incident took place around 3 p.m. Monday on South Bensley Avenue in the South Deering neighborhood.
The footage shows children laughing and taunting 33-year-old Corshawnda Hatter and her kids before trapping them against a chain-link fence.
As Hatter attempts to shield her children, several attackers punch her and drag her to the ground, ripping her wig off.
The child assailants continued to hit and kick her while her son tried frantically to escape, with one youth yelling, “Beat his ass!”
Hatter and her son were treated at a hospital for injuries suffered during the beating.
“They were literally waiting [along] the way we walked home, just to jump all of us,” Hatter told WGN-TV.
She told reporters outside the school on Tuesday that the attackers had followed them, adding, “They hit my son first, dragged me in the grass and pulled my baby’s hair.”
Hatter said her son had endured more than two years of bullying at the school and claimed officials failed to intervene.
She met with administrators and city leaders following the incident. “I’m trying to get justice for my son,” she said.
“We are horrified by the attack on this family, and we are working collaboratively with city departments and agencies to provide support to the victims of the attack,” Chicago Public Schools said in a statement about the incident.
The district noted that leaders from the Mayor’s Office, Chicago Police Department and Chicago Housing Authority were coordinating additional support for the family.
“School administrators, teachers, and support staff work with students to create an open environment where conflicts and grievances can be addressed,” the statement added.
The Chicago Police Department said no arrests had been made in connection with the school attack but confirmed that officers had increased their presence around the campus.
According to ABC 7 Chicago, some students will be questioned by investigators, who will reportedly do so with “great sensitivity” because they are minors.
Watch the shocking video HERE.
