"Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba after her 1979 escape from a U.S. prison where she had been serving a life sentence for killing a police officer, has died, her daughter and the Cuban government said. A member of the Black Liberation Army, Shakur and two others were involved in a gunfight with New Jersey State Police Troopers following a highway traffic stop on May 2, 1973."
"Shakur, who was at the time wanted on several felonies, including bank robbery, fled but was eventually apprehended. She maintained in her writings from Cuba over the years that she didn't shoot anyone and had her hands in the air when she was wounded during the gunfire. Shakur was found guilty of murder, armed robbery and other crimes in 1977 and was sentenced to life in prison, only to escape in November 1979."
"Members of the Black Liberation Army, posing as visitors, stormed the Clinton Correctional Facility for women, took two guards hostage and commandeered a prison van to break Shakur out. She disappeared before eventually emerging in 1984 in Cuba, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum, according to the FBI. A companion who was also convicted in Foerster's killing, Sundiata Acoli, was granted parole in 2022."
Assata Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was a member of the Black Liberation Army involved in a 1973 highway gunfight that killed a New Jersey state trooper and wounded another officer. She was convicted in 1977 of murder, armed robbery and other crimes and sentenced to life, while maintaining she did not shoot anyone and was wounded with her hands raised. She escaped a U.S. prison in 1979 after an armed breakout and resurfaced in Cuba in 1984, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum. Cuba's Foreign Ministry and her daughter confirmed her death in Havana from health conditions and advanced age. Her autobiography Assata influenced activists and artists.
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