Assata Shakur

Assata Olugbala Shakur (/əˈsɑːtə ʃəˈkʊər/ ə-SAH-tə shə-KOOR; born JoAnne Deborah Byron, July 16, 1947 – September 25, 2025) was an American political activist, revolutionary, and fugitive who was a member of the Black Panther Party, and later the Black Liberation Army. In 1977, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and was wanted by the FBI, with a $1 million reward for information leading to her capture, and an additional $1 million reward offered by the New Jersey attorney general. She was never caught and remained a fugitive for 45 years.

Born in Flushing, Queens, Shakur grew up in New York City and Wilmington, North Carolina. After running away from home several times, she was taken in by an aunt, who later acted as one of her lawyers. Shakur became involved in political activism while attending the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the City College of New York. After graduation, she adopted the name Assata Shakur and briefly joined the Black Panther Party before becoming a member of the BLA.

Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was charged with several crimes, leading to a multi-state manhunt. On May 2, 1973, Shakur, along with BLA members Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike. The incident escalated into a shootout with State Troopers Werner Foerster and James Harper. Foerster was killed and Harper was wounded; Zayd Shakur was killed, and both Assata Shakur and Acoli were wounded. At her 1977 trial, Shakur was convicted on multiple charges, including the murder of Foerster and the assault of Harper, and was sentenced to life plus 26 to 33 years in prison. Shakur maintained that she could not have fired the shots that wounded Harper and killed Foerster, as her right arm had been injured by police gunfire early in the confrontation.

While serving her sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey, Shakur escaped in 1979 with the assistance of members of the BLA and the May 19th Communist Organization. She was granted political asylum in Cuba in 1984, where she resided for the remainder of her life despite ongoing efforts by the U.S. government to secure her extradition. In 2013, the FBI added her to its FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list under the name Joanne Deborah Chesimard, making her the first woman to be listed. Shakur died on September 25, 2025, at the age of 78, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry.