CHICAGO — A man facing a federal terrorism charge for allegedly dousing a 26-year-old woman with gasoline and lighting her on fire on a Blue Line train car was ordered detained while awaiting trial Friday.

The unusual charge of terrorism against a mass transportation system filed against 50-year-old Lawrence Reed comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly used violence on public transit as a political cudgel against blue cities. That includes Chicago, where the administration previously threatened to withhold federal funds from the CTA if it did not address crime and fare evasion to its satisfaction.

The CTA has repeatedly defended its safety practices. Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday declared the attack an “isolated incident” before describing it as an “absolute failure” of the criminal justice system and mental health institutions. Court records show that Reed’s mental health has been a factor in several of his 72 preceding arrests and U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally ordered a mental and physical health evaluation for him as he awaits trial.

A Cook County pretrial monitoring report filed Thursday stated that Reed had violated the terms of his release five times between Nov. 19 and the day of the alleged attack. The crime occurred on a Monday, which was not on a list of days Reed was given more freedom of movement by the court.

Reed appeared at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in a yellow jumpsuit and considerably calmer than he had been at his first appearance Wednesday, when he had worn a white “spit guard” over his face. On Friday, his face uncovered, Reed declared for the second time that he would represent himself, despite several attempts by McNally to offer him a federal public defender. He also stated in court that he had not been taking his medication.

“There is a representative of the federal defender program here today who can jump in if you decide to change your mind,” McNally said.

“OK,” Reed replied. “I’m gonna represent myself.”

As Reed spoke, a woman in the second row of the courtroom started to cry. She raised her hand in the air.

Defendants have a constitutional right to represent themselves, a right that experts say nonetheless puts the accused at a disadvantage. It also poses challenges for judges and prosecutors.

Reed denied a pretrial services officer’s statement that he had not cooperated with officials’ attempts to interview him ahead of the appearance, and said he consented to detention while pending trial.

“I agree (with) me being detained,” he said. “It’s for my sake. For my safety. I’m a target. I don’t feel safe out there.”

He smiled and shook his head as Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Bond walked through an initial recitation of the charges against him. Bond called the alleged attack a “horrific and barbaric crime” and said Reed has been arrested 72 times over the last 30 years, per police records.

Of those arrests, 15 have led to convictions. One of those convictions was for a 2020 arson attempt in which he poured gasoline onto the Thompson Center and tried to light the building on fire.

Bond also noted that Reed had been on pretrial release with electronic monitoring for an aggravated battery against a social worker while he was hospitalized in Berwyn. A Cook County judge had ordered him released pending trial, records show, and later modified the order to allow him more freedom of movement.

Bond said Reed poured a bottle of gasoline he’d filled up at a West Side gas station over the head and body of the woman, who was sitting with her back to him. He then attempted to light it on fire.

Bond said the victim fought off Reed and ran to the front of the train car as Reed chased her and cornered her at the back of the train car. Reed watched the woman burn “as if nothing was happening,” Bond said.

The victim was on fire for about a minute total, Bond said, and rolled around the floor of the train car and train platform trying to put out the flames before bystanders stepped in to help.

The attack victim remained hospitalized as of Friday morning, her family said in a statement. Aside from thanking the public for sending their well-wishes, the victim’s family declined to comment on the case or their daughter’s condition.

The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened the leaders of blue-city mass transit agencies that it could withhold their federal funding if they do not address crime to the administration’s satisfaction.

In September, President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote a letter to the CTA asking it to lay out its plans to reduce crime and fare evasion on the system — or risk losing funding.

The CTA’s acting president, Nora Leerhsen, defended the agency’s safety practices in a response to Duffy last month. In that letter, Leerhsen claimed crime on the Blue Line specifically had dropped 30% over last year. Crime on the system overall had dropped 12% since 2022, she said.

After the Blue Line attack, Duffy took to social media to renew his criticism of the agency’s approach to public safety.

“This horrific attack is EXACTLY why we need communities to take safety seriously. Blue cities cannot allow another Iryna Zarutska to happen,” Duffy wrote in a post on X, referring to a 23-year-old woman killed in an apparently random fatal stabbing attack on a commuter train in North Carolina. “My mission is to make public transit safe again!” he wrote.

Similar to Reed, the man accused of killing Zarutska is facing a federal charge.

In a statement earlier this week about the arson attack, the CTA said it had a “multi-pronged approach” to public safety and that it had been working closely with Chicago police to aid their investigation.

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