On the eve of President Joe Biden’s visit to Fort Worth, a North Texas family is pleading with the president to bring their son home. Former Marine Trevor Reed sits in a Russian prison, on charges he allegedly got into a drunken altercation with police. U.S. officials call the charges preposterous. His family spoke to NBC 5’s Katy Blakey about…
Joey, Paula, and Taylor Reed plan to stand outside the Fort Worth Veteran Affairs clinic when President Joe Biden visits the center Tuesday afternoon.
The family is hoping the president sees their faces and their signs urging him to bring their son and brother, Trevor Reed, home.
Reed, a Marine veteran, is currently serving a nine-year sentence in a Russian prison on alleged charges of a drunken altercation with a police officer.
U.S. officials have called the charges against him ‘preposterous,’ saying he’s being used as a political pawn by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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“We need to get our son home,” said his mother Paula Reed. “He’s innocent. He has no reason to be there. None whatsoever. He’s wasting his life there. He needs to come home.”
The Reeds, who live in Granbury, hoped for a private meeting with the president during his trip to Fort Worth on Tuesday but learned Monday that their request had been declined.
NBC 5 reached out to the White House for comment but has yet to hear back.
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As Russia’s attack on Ukraine intensifies, the family's hope for a reunion has been fading.
“It’s devastating,” said sister Taylor Reed. “We were hoping we could get Trevor home before all of this escalated to this point – and now that this has started it’s becoming harder and harder to hold on to hope.”
After not being allowed to call his parents for seven months, a rare phone call from Trevor last weekend and on Monday morning only fueled the urgency to bring him home.
“He’s coughing up blood all day long, every day,” said his father Joey Reed. “He’s got a fever off and on.”
“It’s kind of like a double-edged sword,” Paula said. “I wanted to hear from him, but I feel bad because now I know exactly what kind of shape he’s in and that makes it harder.”
The Reeds said Trevor served as a presidential guard at Camp David for former President Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“He was there to defend the president, the vice president, and their families and was there to die if needed to protect them,” Joey Reed said. “We think that should be taken into consideration.”
“We just want him home. President Biden has the power to do that," Joey Reed said.
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