Man accused of lighting CTA passenger on fire was on electronic monitoring at time of crime

NBC 5 Investigates has learned that the 50-year-old Chicago man accused of lighting a woman on fire aboard a CTA train was under court-ordered electronic monitoring at the time of the attack Monday.

In newly filed court records, probation officers with Cook County’s adult probation department allege that Reed violated the terms of his curfew multiple times in the days leading up to Monday’s attack, including on Nov. 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 and again on Monday, the same day as the incident.

A Cook County judge had placed Reed on 24/7 electronic monitoring back in August after he was accused of assaulting a social worker at MacNeal Hospital where he was receiving inpatient care. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

It’s not clear why the adult probation department waited until Nov. 19 – two days after the attack – to file curfew violations, nor is it clear what impact that would’ve had.

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But it does raise questions about the 24/7 electronic monitoring process.

NBC 5 Investigates reached out to the Adult Probation Department Friday. A supervisor who answered directed us to an email for a spokesperson. That email wasn’t returned before publication.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County Chief Judge’s office, which took over electronic monitoring from the sheriff’s department earlier this year, said she could not comment on pending cases.

In federal court Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney called the train attack Monday a “barbaric” crime and said there is video of Lawrence Reed at a Citgo gas station before the incident, filling his bottle with gasoline, and that the 26-year old woman who was set on fire struggled for nearly a minute before she was able to get help.

Reed told the federal judge Friday he would represent himself and agreed he should be kept behind bars while awaiting trial.

“I agree of me being detained. It’s for my safety. I agree with detention for my safety,” Reed said. “I don’t feel safe out there.”

A federal judge requested that Reed undergo a medical and mental evaluation while incarcerated and he cooperate with those evaluations. He told the court he would.