Assata Shakur, wanted Black Liberation Army member, dies at 78 in Cuba
Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper, has died in Cuba, where she had to fled to after escaping from prison, Cuban officials said Friday. She was 78.
Her conviction for the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster, and subsequent escape, garnered her a permanent spot on the New Jersey State Police’s Most Wanted List. The state long sought to extradite Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, from Cuba, without success.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said she died in Havana of health complications and advanced age.
The civil rights activist and convicted murderer had continued to be a top priority for law enforcement officials in the United States over the more than four decades after she broke out of a Clifton, New Jersey, prison.
In May 1973, Shakur and two other members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), an underground militant group, were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by Trooper Foerster and another highway officer. During a confrontation, a shootout ensued, killing Foerster and one of the passengers in the car.
Foerster was 34 at the time of his death, and left behind a wife and young son.
Shakur was wounded in the shootout and arrested. She was later convicted of first-degree murder.
In 1979 -- two years into her life sentence -- she was broken free from prison with the help of other members of BLA and later fled to Cuba, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum.
Shakur made history by becoming the first woman to make the FBI's most-wanted list and was revered by some activist groups for her anti-sexism and anti-racism activism prior to the conviction.
Born JoAnne Deborah Byron in Flushing, Queens, Shakur grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. She became involved in political activism at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College of New York.
"I was convicted by—I don't even want to call it a trial, it was lynching, by an all-white jury," Shakur told BET in 2001. "I had nothing but contempt for the system of justice under which I was tried."
She was also the godmother and step-aunt of late rapper Tupac Shakur.
The FBI had offered a $2 million reward for her capture.
A joint statement from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and state police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan on Friday said they had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the wake of Shakur's death. They said they would vigorously oppose any attempts to repatriate her remains to the U.S.
"Unlike his killer, Trooper Foerster never had a chance to live out his days in peace," the joint statement said. "But we remain fully committed to honoring his memory and sacrifice."
