Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has identified the young woman who was set on fire last week while she was riding a Chicago Transit Authority train as Bethany MaGee, 26.
Duffy, in a post on X, also blamed “Chicago’s carelessness” for the attack, saying it would have never happened had the suspect “been behind bars.”
“Yet Chicago lets repeat offenders roam the streets,” Duffy wrote.
The suspect, Lawrence Reed, 50, has a history of mental illness and has been arrested 72 times since he turned 18, most recently in August, when he was charged with aggravated battery after a social worker was struck, Chicago media reported.
Over the objections of state prosecutors, Reed was released and put on electronic monitoring. Since then, he has violated the terms of his probation a half-dozen times, including the day of the attack, NBC Chicago reported.
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday said he would not confirm the woman’s identity “out of respect for the family’s wishes.”
“This was a tragic incident, and the Mayor’s prayers are with the victim and her family,” he said in a statement.
At a news conference last week, Johnson said the Nov. 17 attack”should have never happened” and characterized the violence as “an absolute failure of our criminal justice as well as our mental health institutions.”
He said the suspect was clearly mentally disturbed and a danger to himself and the community — “and now we have a woman who is fighting for her life,” the mayor said.
President Donald Trump and members of his administration have routinely claimed that cities run by Democrats, like Johnson, have high crime rates.
When NBC News reached out to the Chicago Police Department to confirm Duffy’s naming of MaGee, a spokesperson emailed that “our office does not identify victims.”
There was also no immediate response from MaGee’s family to Duffy’s announcement. Calls to a phone number believed to belong to her family went unanswered.
Last week the family of the victim, who is being cared for at Stroger Hospital, released a statement that thanked “everyone for their prayers and well-wishes as our daughter receives care for injuries sustained earlier this week.”
Duffy’s post Sunday appeared several days after federal prosecutors charged Reed with one count of committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation system in the Northern District of Illinois.
At the court hearing Wednesday, Reed repeatedly yelled “I plead guilty!” as soon as he entered the courtroom, according to NBC Chicago.
Reed declined counsel and tried to drown out the judge by singing out loud. The judge and the prosecutor agreed Reed should have a mental evaluation.
If he is convicted, Reed faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The woman was attacked just before 9:30 p.m. a week ago on a CTA blue line train.
Security video captured the man authorities identified as Reed holding a bottle and approaching the victim, who was sitting with her back to him. It showed him suddenly pouring a liquid over her head and trying to ignite it.
The woman, according to the complaint, fought him off and then ran toward the front of the train car with the man chasing after her.
The man quickly caught up with her and set the woman ablaze, the complaint said. He then “stood watching” as “her body was engulfed in flames.”
The woman was “almost fully engulfed in flames” and tried to roll to put out the blaze, the complaint said.
