Rebel Soul
3rd May 2005, 05:25
Feds are offering a $1 million reward to snare Assata Shakur, now in Cuba
Monday, May 02, 2005
BY RICK HEPP
Star-Ledger Staff
The U.S. Department of Justice has posted a $1 million bounty for the capture of New Jersey's most-wanted fugitive: Assata Shakur, the former Black Liberation Army member who escaped a state prison a quarter of a century ago.
The reward will be announced by Attorney General Peter Harvey and State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes at the State Police headquarters in West Trenton today, -- the 32nd anniversary of the slaying of state Trooper Werner Foerster during a gunfight on the New Jersey Turnpike. Chesimard was convicted of murdering Foerster by shooting him twice as he lay wounded.
The $1 million will be the largest reward ever set by the federal government on a New Jersey fugitive, state police say. Police had offered $150,000 for Assata's capture since 1998.
Authorities know Assata is living in Cuba under political asylum. They hope this new reward will provide more incentive for bounty hunters.
"She is now 120 pounds of money," State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said. "It is going to exert pressures that weren't in place nationally and internationally before. And we're going to follow up to make sure everybody is aware of this both inside and outside of Cuba."
Harvey and Fuentes also will announce that the Justice Department has placed Chesimard on a variety of international terrorist watch lists for the first time.
"We owe it to the family (of the slain trooper)," Fuentes said. "We owe it to the New Jersey State Police and we owe it to every citizen in the state of New Jersey to bring her back and we will."
Harvey and Fuentes last Friday were on hand with troopers and Foerster's family to name a Route 18 bridge in East Brunswick over the Turnpike the Werner Foerster Overpass.
Chesimard, now 57 and living under the name Assata Shakur, was convicted in 1977 by a Middlesex County jury of murdering Foerster during a gunbattle on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. A second trooper, James Harper, was wounded.
The 1973 shootout began minutes after Harper pulled over Chesimard and two companions for a faulty tail light, according to State Police files. Foerster, patrolling nearby, responded to provide back up.
The troopers asked the driver, Sundiata, to step out of the vehicle after his license did not match the sedan's registration, the files show. As Foerster questioned Sundiata, Harper walked around the car to speak with Assata and her brother-in-law, Zayd Shakur.
That's when shots were fired from within the car and both troopers returned fire, according to police. A bullet struck Foerster, knocking him to the ground and leaving him incapacitated.
"Assata aledgely then took the weapon away from Foerster and shot him in the neck and head," Fuentes said. "This isn't the result of a toe-to-toe exchange. This is an execution and there's a clear distinction."
Assata's attorneys denied she shot Foerster, saying she was too seriously wounded to pull a trigger after being struck twice by shots from Harper's gun.
After the vehicle drove away, Harper, dazed from a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, staggered to a nearby State Police barracks.
Within minutes, police found the vehicle abandoned on the side of the road five miles south of the shooting, the files show. Troopers arrested Assata after she walked toward them with her hands in the air. The body of Zayd, who died in the gunfight, was found near the car.
Sundiata, whom troopers saw running from the car, was captured the next day in a wooded area in East Brunswick. Now 67, he remains in a Pennsylvania prison serving a life sentence. Last August, a state parole board panel denied his request for release.
In 1979, Assata escaped from the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in Hunterdon County -- now known as the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women -- when three gunmen posing as visitors took two guards hostage and drove her out of the facility's maximum-security unit in a van.
Three months ago, State Police sent Lt. Col. Juan Mattos to an international policing conference in the Dominican Republic to ask Caribbean, Central American and South American authorities for help in arresting Chesimard.
"We want to make sure she does not have a way to escape from Cuba and we want to apply pressure to her while she is in Cuba," Harvey said.
About a year ago, Harvey and Fuentes approached Joseph Billy, then Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark office and now deputy assistant director for counter-intelligence in Washington, D.C. Billy helped them apply to the FBI to increase the reward. Harvey and Fuentes presented their arguments directly to FBI Director Robert Mueller, and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed the order last Thursday.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index...09784178400.xml (http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1115009784178400.xml)
Monday, May 02, 2005
BY RICK HEPP
Star-Ledger Staff
The U.S. Department of Justice has posted a $1 million bounty for the capture of New Jersey's most-wanted fugitive: Assata Shakur, the former Black Liberation Army member who escaped a state prison a quarter of a century ago.
The reward will be announced by Attorney General Peter Harvey and State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes at the State Police headquarters in West Trenton today, -- the 32nd anniversary of the slaying of state Trooper Werner Foerster during a gunfight on the New Jersey Turnpike. Chesimard was convicted of murdering Foerster by shooting him twice as he lay wounded.
The $1 million will be the largest reward ever set by the federal government on a New Jersey fugitive, state police say. Police had offered $150,000 for Assata's capture since 1998.
Authorities know Assata is living in Cuba under political asylum. They hope this new reward will provide more incentive for bounty hunters.
"She is now 120 pounds of money," State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes said. "It is going to exert pressures that weren't in place nationally and internationally before. And we're going to follow up to make sure everybody is aware of this both inside and outside of Cuba."
Harvey and Fuentes also will announce that the Justice Department has placed Chesimard on a variety of international terrorist watch lists for the first time.
"We owe it to the family (of the slain trooper)," Fuentes said. "We owe it to the New Jersey State Police and we owe it to every citizen in the state of New Jersey to bring her back and we will."
Harvey and Fuentes last Friday were on hand with troopers and Foerster's family to name a Route 18 bridge in East Brunswick over the Turnpike the Werner Foerster Overpass.
Chesimard, now 57 and living under the name Assata Shakur, was convicted in 1977 by a Middlesex County jury of murdering Foerster during a gunbattle on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. A second trooper, James Harper, was wounded.
The 1973 shootout began minutes after Harper pulled over Chesimard and two companions for a faulty tail light, according to State Police files. Foerster, patrolling nearby, responded to provide back up.
The troopers asked the driver, Sundiata, to step out of the vehicle after his license did not match the sedan's registration, the files show. As Foerster questioned Sundiata, Harper walked around the car to speak with Assata and her brother-in-law, Zayd Shakur.
That's when shots were fired from within the car and both troopers returned fire, according to police. A bullet struck Foerster, knocking him to the ground and leaving him incapacitated.
"Assata aledgely then took the weapon away from Foerster and shot him in the neck and head," Fuentes said. "This isn't the result of a toe-to-toe exchange. This is an execution and there's a clear distinction."
Assata's attorneys denied she shot Foerster, saying she was too seriously wounded to pull a trigger after being struck twice by shots from Harper's gun.
After the vehicle drove away, Harper, dazed from a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, staggered to a nearby State Police barracks.
Within minutes, police found the vehicle abandoned on the side of the road five miles south of the shooting, the files show. Troopers arrested Assata after she walked toward them with her hands in the air. The body of Zayd, who died in the gunfight, was found near the car.
Sundiata, whom troopers saw running from the car, was captured the next day in a wooded area in East Brunswick. Now 67, he remains in a Pennsylvania prison serving a life sentence. Last August, a state parole board panel denied his request for release.
In 1979, Assata escaped from the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in Hunterdon County -- now known as the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women -- when three gunmen posing as visitors took two guards hostage and drove her out of the facility's maximum-security unit in a van.
Three months ago, State Police sent Lt. Col. Juan Mattos to an international policing conference in the Dominican Republic to ask Caribbean, Central American and South American authorities for help in arresting Chesimard.
"We want to make sure she does not have a way to escape from Cuba and we want to apply pressure to her while she is in Cuba," Harvey said.
About a year ago, Harvey and Fuentes approached Joseph Billy, then Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark office and now deputy assistant director for counter-intelligence in Washington, D.C. Billy helped them apply to the FBI to increase the reward. Harvey and Fuentes presented their arguments directly to FBI Director Robert Mueller, and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed the order last Thursday.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index...09784178400.xml (http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1115009784178400.xml)