Assata Shakur, sought by FBI for 1973 murder of New Jersey trooper, dies in Cuba

Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted of murdering a state trooper in 1973 and lived in Cuba for decades, has died, authorities said Friday. 

Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, died in Havana “due to health conditions and advanced age” on Thursday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release. 

She was born JoAnne Deborah Byron in Queens, New York, in July 1947, BET News reported. In 1967, she married Louis Chesimard. The pair divorced in 1970. 

Shakur was attached to Black nationalist movements, including the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, which called for armed resistance against systemic racism and planned assassinations of law enforcement members in multiple U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. In 2013, former FBI assistant director John Miller told CBS News that she was “the soul of the Black Liberation Army” and had been a leader of the group. 

She was charged with multiple crimes in the early 1970s, including a bank robbery. In 1973, she was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. The incident left state trooper Werner Foerster and Black Liberation Army member Zayd Malik Shakur dead. Assata Shakur was wounded in the incident. She was arrested and convicted of murdering Foerster, as well as seven other felony charges related to the shooting. She was sentenced to life in prison. 

In 1979, Shakur escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. Miller said the escape, which saw two men smuggled into the prison to take guards hostage and break her out, was “incredibly daring.” In 1984, she was smuggled to Mexico, Miller said, then transported to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum by the Castro government. 

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan said in a statement Friday, “For years, we have worked with the State Department to bring Chesimard back to New Jersey, so she could face justice for the cold-blooded murder of an American hero. Sadly, it appears she has passed without being held fully accountable for her heinous crimes.”

Shakur lived openly in Cuba, publishing an autobiography in 1987. Miller said she taught at Cuban universities. In 2013, she was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted terrorist list, becoming the first woman to be added. The reward for her capture was $2 million, but she was largely shielded from extradition to the U.S., Miller said. 

Activists saw her as a symbol of resistance to racial injustice and government repression, CBS News previously reported. 

Shakur was the step-aunt and godmother of slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

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Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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