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She is wanted for multiple crimes, including bank robberies and a grenade attack on police officers. Some even claim that she is the“ mother hen who kept them together, kept them moving, kept them shooting”. However, the FBI’ s claims are disputed, with some police officers suggesting that her importance has been“ mythologized” to“ demonize” her.
The New Jersey Turnpike Shooting: The Breaking Point
On May 2, 1973, the affair took a dramatic turn.
May 2, 1973, 12:45 a. m., New Jersey Turnpike, East Brunswick: Assata Shakur, accompanied by Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, is pulled over by police officer James Harper for a broken taillight and a slight speeding ticket. Accounts differ as to the exact course of events, but a shootout breaks out. Police officer Werner Foerster is killed, as is Zayd Shakur. Assata and Acoli are both wounded.
After the shooting: Assata Shakur is wounded in both arms and the shoulder. She is transferred to hospital under“ heavy guard” and interrogated from her hospital bed. Her lawyers denounce“ inferior medical care” and police brutality during this period. She claims to have had her hands in the air when the shooting began.
Flashmag! Edition 165 Octobre 2025
Shakur is escorted from Middlesex county jail, November 1973. Photograph: New York Daily News Archive
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1973-1977, New York and New Jersey: Assata Shakur faces ten indictments, resulting in seven different trials on various charges, including two bank robberies, the kidnapping of a drug dealer and the attempted murder of police officers. Three of these trials result in acquittals, one in a hung jury, one in a change of venue, one in a mistrial due to pregnancy, and one in a conviction. 1977, New Jersey: At the Turnpike shooting trial, Assata Shakur is convicted of murder, armed robbery and other crimes, and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 26 to 33 years. Her defense argues that her medical injuries( a severed median nerve from the second bullet) would have prevented her from firing a weapon. Forensic analysis found no gunshot residue on her fingers, nor her fingerprints on any weapon at the scene.