Black liberation activist and American fugitive Assata Shakur, who escaped to Cuba more than 45 years ago after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper, died in Havana, the government announced Friday.
She was 78.
Shakur, who changed her name from Joanne Chesimard, died Thursday from health ailments and advanced age, according to a short statement released by the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
“Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I am feeling at this time. I want to thank you for your loving prayers,” her daughter Kakuya Shakur wrote in a Facebook post.
Shakur was involved in a shootout during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. State Trooper Werner Foerster, the second officer responding to the scene, found a loaded gun on the driver of the car, according to previous NBC News reporting. Shakur was in the front passenger seat and another man was seated behind her.
There was an exchange of gunfire. James Harper, the state trooper who initially pulled the group over, said he saw Shakur shoot Foerster in the stomach with the officer’s gun after he tussled with the driver, who also shot Foerster in the arm.
State Trooper Werner Foerster.AP