CHICAGO — A man accused of pouring a flammable liquid on a woman and then setting her on fire while they were riding a train in Chicago has been charged with committing a terrorist attack, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Illinois, Lawrence Reed, 50, of Chicago, was charged with a federal count of committing a terrorist attack on a mass transit system.
The 26-year-old woman, who was not identified publicly by police, was critically injured in the attack. She was riding a Blue Line train at 9:25 p.m. CT at the Clark/Lake subway station in the city’s Loop district on Monday.
According to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrest affidavit, Reed approached the woman as she sat with her back to him and doused her with gasoline that he possessed in a plastic beverage bottle.
Surveillance footage from the train showed the woman sitting inside a car, and Reed seated on the opposite side of the train.
Prosecutors said the woman fought off the alleged attacker and ran to the front of the train. Prosecutors said that Reed then ignited the bottle and dropped it on the floor of the train.
Police said the woman exited the train at the Clark/Lake station. Bystanders were able to help put the fire out as she collapsed onto the platform, and paramedics rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Reed exited the train at the same station and walked away.
Police investigating the scene said they discovered a partially melted bottle, a lighter and flammable liquid where the woman had been sitting, according to the charging documents.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said the surveillance video was compelling.
#BREAKING: Lawrence Reed, 50, is charged with terrorist attack against a mass transportation system. He’s the suspect accused of dousing a 26-year-old woman with a suspected ignitable liquid and lighting her on fire as she tried to get away on a CTA Blue Line train. @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/3C5MD7IHKJ
— Courtney Spinelli (@CourtSpinelliTV) November 19, 2025
“The surveillance video is difficult to watch and is very disturbing, as a young woman was set ablaze and tried to put herself out, while other passengers got out of the way or watched,” Boutros said during a news conference. “When the train stopped and the victim was able to muster the strength to stumble on the platform, two good Samaritans put out the flames.”
Boutros added that the victim was “minding her business” on her phone when the attack happened.
He added that a previous narrative, which claimed the victim and Reed were involved in an argument, was inaccurate.
Reed was taken into custody on Tuesday and made his first court appearance on Wednesday.
He told the court, “I plead guilty. I plead guilty,” multiple times, before insisting that he would represent himself.
Reed is due back in court at 10 a.m. CT Friday for a hearing that will determine whether he will be held in custody pending trial.
“If death were to happen to the victim, we obviously pray and hope it does not, this would be a death-eligible case,” Boutros told reporters.
According to WGN-TV, police sources and arrest records confirm Reed had been arrested 71 times in Cook County before Tuesday. He was convicted in 13 of those cases.
He was on pretrial release for an aggravated battery charge, court records show. That stems from an alleged assault in August on a social worker at MacNeal Hospital.
If convicted on the terrorist charge, Reed faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
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