A 26-year-old woman who was set on fire allegedly by a career criminal in Chicago is being described by friends and neighbors as a kind and hardworking individual from a close-knit, small-town family.

Bethany MaGee, the victim of the horrific attack, is an avid reader who took honors classes at her high school in Indiana, a former classmate who goes by Ethan told the New York Post.

"She [is] incredibly smart. Very soft spoken, very gentle, very smart," he said.

A local who lives near the family in their small, tight-knit Christian community in Upland, Indiana, said the community is keeping her in their thoughts and prayers as she remains in critical condition at a hospital burn unit following the attack on a CTA Blue Line train on Nov. 17.

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"We just know they are going through a hard time, so we are praying for them," one local told the outlet.

"They’re a wonderful family… about as loving as you can be," the resident said, stressing the parents’ desire for privacy as they process the tragedy.

Authorities said the alleged attacker, 50-year-old Lawrence Reed, has spent decades cycling through the criminal justice system and was out on bond at the time of the assault.

Reed had been ordered onto electronic monitoring on Aug. 22, when Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez denied a prosecution request to keep him jailed on felony allegations that he knocked a social worker unconscious inside MacNeal Hospital’s psychiatric ward.

During that hearing, transcripts show Molina-Gonzalez told prosecutors, "I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to."

According to court documents in that battery case, Cook County electronic monitoring records show Reed repeatedly violated his curfew and movement restrictions in the days leading up to the alleged Chicago Transit Authority attack on Nov. 17.

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On Tuesday, the White House weighed in on the attack on MaGee, blasting left-wing policies in deep-blue cities.

"Liberal soft-on-crime policies are FAILING American communities and endangering law-abiding citizens," the White House wrote on X. "A career criminal with 72 arrests should have never been free to roam the streets. Pray for Bethany."

Reed has been charged with committing a terrorist attack or violence against a mass transportation system, according to the criminal complaint.

Federal prosecutors allege that Reed intentionally used gasoline and a lighter to set MaGee on fire aboard the train at about 9:30 p.m.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros said MaGee was "minding her own business and reading her phone" while seated in the middle of the train car when Reed approached her from behind, doused her head and body with gasoline, and tried to ignite the liquid.

MaGee ran to the back of the car as he ignited the rest of the liquid in the bottle and then used it to light her on fire, according to the complaint.

MaGee’s hometown in Indiana is an enclave of fewer than 4,000 people and is home to Taylor University. She was raised by a doting family, a neighbor said.

A man who identified himself to the Post as the victim’s brother at a family home Monday said, "Thanks for stopping by but no comments at this time."

Fox News' Stephen Sorace, Greg Wehner, Alexandra Koch and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.

Longtime civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson was released from a Chicago hospital on Monday after receiving medical care for at least 12 days for a rare brain disorder, according to his family.

Jackson, 84, was discharged from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and remains in stable condition, his son and family spokesperson Yusef Jackson said in a statement.

The Baptist minister, social activist and former U.S. presidential candidate was admitted to the hospital earlier this month to be under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects balance, movement and eye motion. Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013. In April 2025, the diagnosis was reclassified as PSP, for which there is currently no cure.

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"Our family would like to thank the countless friends and supporters who have reached out, visited, and prayed for our father," Yusef Jackson added in the statement issued through the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a Chicago-based progressive organization the elder Jackson founded. 

"We bear witness to the fact that prayer works and would also like to thank the professional, caring, and amazing medical and security staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital," he added. "We humbly ask for your continued prayers throughout this precious time."

Jackson announced his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017.

"After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson's disease, a disease that bested my father," he said at the time. "Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful, and I have been slow to grasp the gravity of it."

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The longtime political activist, who worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has faced several health challenges in recent years, including gallbladder surgery and hospitalization due to COVID-19.

In 2021, he was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., after falling and hitting his head while helping Howard University students protesting campus living conditions.

Jackson became a key lieutenant to King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the 1960s. He was involved in the Selma to Montgomery marches, three protest marches held in 1965 in Alabama to advocate for voting rights for African Americans.

After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the most prominent heirs to King’s legacy of activism. Jackson is considered one of the most prominent civil rights leaders, ministers and political figures in modern American history. Jackson twice ran for president as a Democrat, in 1984 and 1988.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition was formed by the elder Jackson in 1996 by merging two groups he had founded: Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition.

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan and Reuters contributed to this report.