Overview
- Police first stopped Ronald Reed at the Clark-Lake CTA station after seeing an open can of alcohol and found a machete, and he was cited on municipal and misdemeanor counts before being released because those charges are not detainable under the SAFE-T Act.
- Sheriff’s deputies stopped Reed again on a Green Line train, recovered an 18-inch-blade machete and a 5-inch serrated knife, and prosecutors filed a felony charge for being a felon in possession of a weapon.
- A Cook County judge ordered Reed jailed pending trial after the felon-in-possession charge because that offense allows pretrial detention under current law.
- Body-worn camera video released by the sheriff’s office captures Reed admitting he had a machete during the second encounter, and that footage is part of the public record now driving scrutiny of the case.
- Coverage and public concern center on prosecutorial discretion and how SAFE-T Act rules about detainable offenses can leave questions about whether earlier charging decisions missed an opportunity to keep a weapon off transit.