Assata Shakur, birth name JoAnne Deborah Byron, a former domestic terrorist who escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba where she was granted asylum, has died at the age of 78.
Shakur was sent to prison for murder, armed robbery, and other crimes. For years, she has been held up by the radical left as a ‘black liberation’ activist and revolutionary.
She embraced life in Cuba and praised Communist leader Fidel Castro as a hero.
The Associated Press reports:
Assata Shakur, a fugitive Black militant sought by the US since 1979, dies in Cuba
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.
Shakur, who went by Joanne Deborah Chesimard before changing her name, died Thursday in the capital city of Havana due to “health conditions and advanced age,” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Shakur’s daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed her mother’s death in a Facebook post.
Officials in New Jersey, where Shakur had been arrested, convicted and imprisoned, said she was 78…
On May 2, 1973, Shakur and two others were pulled over by New Jersey State Police troopers because the car they were driving had a broken taillight.
A gunfight ensued and one of the troopers, Werner Foerster, was killed and another was wounded. One of Shakur’s companions was also killed.
Shakur’s prison stint was short-lived, though. 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 her out.
Here’s a video report:
It’s been quite a week for historic domestic terrorists. Just yesterday, the Gateway Pundit reported that the radical leftist who tried to assassinate Republican President Gerald Ford died this week at age 95. Neither of these women will be missed by decent people.
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