Assata Shakur, the first woman ever placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list after being convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 and fleeing to Cuba in 1979, has died at 78.
Assata Shakur, the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, has died in Cuba at the age of 78. The former Black Liberation Army member, born Joanne Chesimard, was convicted in 1973 of killing New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout but escaped prison in 1979 and sought asylum in Havana.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed she “died in Havana, Cuba, as a result of health conditions and her advanced age.”
Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, announced: “At approximately 1:15 PM on September 25th, my mother, Assata Shakur, took her last earthly breath. Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I am feeling.”
Shakur, a former Black Panther and civil rights activist, long insisted she was wrongfully convicted. In a 1998 letter to Pope John Paul II, she wrote: “I advocate self-determination… and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.”
She remained a wanted fugitive, with U.S. authorities offering a $2 million reward for her capture.
READ MORE AT DAILY STAR