Assata Olugbala Shakur ( born July 16, 1947, as JoAnne Deborah Byron, married name Chesimard ) is an African-American activist and escaped convict who was a member of the Black Panther Party ( BPP ) and Black Liberation Army ( BLA ).

Between 1971 and 1973, Shakur was accused of several crimes and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.

In May 1973 Shakur was involved in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, during which New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and BLA member Zayd Malik Shakur were killed and Shakur and Trooper James Harper were wounded.

Between 1973 and 1977, Shakur was indicted in relation to six other alleged criminal incidents — charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery, and kidnapping — resulting in three acquittals and three dismissals.

Shakur was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, on July 16, 1947, where she lived for three years with her parents and grandparents, Lula and Frank Hill.

Shakur was arrested for the first time in 1967 with 100 other BMCC students, on charges of trespassing.

That same year she changed her name to Assata Shakur and joined the Black Liberation Army ( BLA ), " a politico-military organization, whose primary objective ( was ) to fight for the independence and self-determination of Afrikan people in the United States.

On April 6, 1971, Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and was arrested on a string of charges.

Shakur then allegedly displayed a revolver and a struggle ensued, during which she was shot.

Shakur is alleged to have said that she was glad that she had been shot since now that she had experienced what it was like she was no longer afraid to be shot again.

Following an August 23, 1971, bank robbery in Queens, Shakur was sought for questioning, and a photograph of a woman ( who was later alleged to be Shakur ) with thick rimmed black glasses, a high hairdo pulled tightly over her head, and a steadily pointed gun became ubiquitous in banks and full page print ads paid for by the New York Clearing House Association.

On December 21, 1971, Shakur was named as one of four suspects by New York City police in a hand grenade attack that destroyed a police car and slightly injured two patrolmen in Maspeth, Queens ; a 13-state alarm was issued three days after the attack when a witness identified Shakur and Andrew Jackson from FBI photographs.

Shakur was one of those wanted for questioning for wounding a police officer attempting to serve a traffic summons in Brooklyn on January 26, 1972.

" The stop occurred south of what was then the Turnpike Authority administration building at exit 9, the headquarters of Troop D. Zayd Shakur was driving the two-door vehicle, Assata Shakur was seated in the right front seat, and Acoli was in the right rear seat.

At this point, Assata Shakur and Acoli were ordered to put their hands on their laps and not to move ; Harper said that Assata Shakur then reached down to the right of her right leg, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the shoulder, after which he retreated to behind his vehicle.

Acoli then drove the car ( a white Pontiac LeMans with Vermont license plates )— which contained Assata Shakur, who was wounded, and Zayd Shakur, who was dead or dying — down the road at milepost 78 across from Service Area 8-N ( the Joyce Kilmer Service Area ), where Assata Shakur was apprehended.

According to Palentchar, Assata Shakur then walked towards him from away with her bloody arms raised in surrender.

Assata Shakur was transferred from Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick to Roosevelt Hospital in Edison after her lawyers obtained a court order from Judge John Bachman, and then transferred to Middlesex County Workhouse a few weeks later.

After the death of Tupac Shakur and the release of Tha Doggfather, Snoop Dogg openly blasted Suge Knight for the murder of Shakur and decided to leave the label, which he did in 1997, moving to Master P's No Limit Records and then forming his own record label, Doggystyle Records.

Soon Knight would sign rapper Tupac " 2Pac " Shakur, incarcerated on a sexual abuse conviction, after agreeing to post Shakur's bail.

" The show will feature his incarcerated father, Mutulu Shakur, a proponent of the Republic of New Afrika in the 1960s and ' 70s and member of the neo-Marxist / black nationalist group Black Liberation Army.

Prior to joining the BPP, Shakur had met several of its members on a 1970 trip to Oakland, California.

Atlanta law enforcement officials said that Shakur and Jackson had lived together for several months in Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 1971.

Oakland was the birthplace or home at one time of several rap acts, including MC Hammer, Digital Underground, Hieroglyphics ( including Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien ), The Luniz, Tupac Shakur, and Too Short.

After several years of chart successes for artists including Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Outlawz and Tha Dogg Pound, Death Row Records stagnated after Knight's incarceration on parole violation charges in September 1996.

Later that night, Shakur was shot several times while in a car Suge was driving as they headed to Knight's Vegas Club 662 ; despite living several days in critical condition, the rapper died on September 13, 1996.

Shakur was a strong supporter of Malcolm X as well as several other Civil Rights leaders at the time.

He is also recognized as a producer, featuring on his own mixtapes several " Green Remixes ," including, most notably, a remix of the Nas and Tupac Shakur collaboration, " Thugz Mansion.

Shakur was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died several days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.

Wilkerson exhausted his final appeal to Judge Jan Krocker in February 2000, a dramatic scene involving community activist Njeri Shakur ( member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and the Allen Parkway Village Residents Council ) shouting at Judge Krocker led to a contempt charge against Shakur ; she served 30 days in the Harris County Jail albeit several demonstrations outside the Harris County Courthouse.

According to Shakur, she was beaten and tortured during her incarceration in a number of different federal and state prisons.

** Assata Shakur ( née Joanne Chesimard ), a former member of Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, escapes from a New York prison to Cuba, where she remains under political asylum.

In 2003, he authored a book called There's a God on the Mic ( ISBN 1-56025-533-1 ), which breaks down his 50 favorite MCs in terms of originality, concepts, versatility, vocabulary, substance, flow, flavor, freestyle, vocal presence, live performance, poetic value, body of work, industry impact, social impact, longevity, lyrics and battle skills, where he ranked himself as number # 5, ahead of MCs such as The GZA, and Tupac Shakur.

During the moments where Shakur raps about his claimed affair with Evans, Biggie crouches near the camera while Shakur yells in his face.

In retrospect of the events which ensued only a few months afterward, the song has been viewed as the turning point in the feud between Shakur and Biggie, where things were said and sung which could never be taken back during the remainder of Shakur's life.

Shakur and the Death Row crew attended a boxing match in Las Vegas, where he was murdered in 1996.

Shakur is the step-aunt of the deceased hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, the stepson of her brother Mutulu Shakur.

Shakur devotes only one paragraph of her autobiography to her marriage, attributing its termination to disagreements related to gender roles.

After her capture, however, Shakur was not charged with any of the crimes that had made her the subject of the manhunt.

Shakur and others claim that she was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO as a result of her involvement with these organizations.

According to a New Jersey Police spokesperson, Assata Shakur was on her way to a " new hideout in Philadelphia " and " heading ultimately for Washington " and a book in the vehicle contained a list of potential BLA targets.

Assata Shakur testified that she was on her way to Baltimore for a job as a bar waitress.

Assata Shakur was interrogated and arraigned from her hospital bed, and her medical care during this period is often alleged to have been " substandard ".

Afeni Shakur won her court case against Death Row Record to receive 150 unreleased songs by her son.

Other notable fans of the Versace fashion house are Tupac Shakur, Carlos Coy, Elizabeth Hurley, Axl Rose, Beyoncé and Princess Diana, who was offered, but declined, £ 1, 000, 000 to appear on the catwalk in Versace to celebrate her divorce from Prince Charles.

Assata Shakur, in her autobiography, asserts