Steve Lieberman

slieberm@lohud.com

Editor's note: This story has been revised on Feb. 11 to reflect that Shakur has yet to be released. The Journal News is seeking additional information from the California Bureau of Prisons on the circumstances of the case.

The mastermind behind the 1981 Brinks armored-car robbery, in which two Nyack police officers and a security guard were killed, could soon be released from federal prison after serving half his 60-year sentence.

Mutulu Shakur, once the leader of the radical Black Liberation Army and a Harlem-based acupuncturist, is being considered for release from the high-security penitentiary in Victorville, California, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. A hearing is set for early April.

The families of the slain officers and security guard were not informed of Shakur's eligibility for release. Shakur also was involved with the escape of his sister, convicted New Jersey cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, known as Assata Shakur, who is living in Cuba.

Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of slain rapper/actor Tupac Shakur, had been sentenced in 1988 for his role in masterminding robberies by a self-proclaimed revolutionary group. The gang — known as "The Family" — was composed of Black Liberation Army members and former members of the Weather Underground and other violent groups from the 1960s.

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On Oct. 20, 1981, Nyack police Sgt. Edward O'Grady, Officer Waverly "Chipper" Brown and Brinks guard Peter Paige were killed in a robbery carried out by the gang members. Paige was killed at the Nanuet Mall, where the gang members stole $1.8 million. O'Grady and Brown were murdered less than an hour later at a police roadblock at the Nyack entrance to the state Thruway on Mountainview Avenue.

Shakur, born Jeral Wayne Williams, was sentenced to 60 years for operating a criminal enterprise, among other charges. He had been accused of participating in 12 robberies from 1976 to 1981.

John Hanchar, a nephew of O'Grady who is now a Clarkstown police officer, said neither Shakur or his comrades in arms, including Weather Underground radical Judith Clark, "have cooperated with authorities to implicate others who were present that day and got away with murder."

"If he committed his crime today he wouldn’t be eligible for parole," Hanchar said. "We hope and pray his remorse is true and no one else has to suffer."

Clark is serving 75 years to life for serving as a getaway driver in the Brinks robbery. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has rebuffed a movement to release her from prison, though supporters continue to press her case with petitions and lobbying.

Most people expected Shakur to die behind bars and did not know he was eligible for parole, said Rockland County Undersheriff Robert Van Cura, who oversees a college scholarship fund in the names of the officers. A memorial stands at the Mountainview Avenue site, where hundreds of people mark the anniversary of the incident every year.

"I don't believe anyone thought he would get out any time soon," Van Cura said.

"I am disappointed the system doesn’t seem to hold people accountable for their actions," Van Cura said. "He was someone who was violent, responsible for death and terror for people living in the metropolitan region."

Shakur's potential release comes more than a decade after a New York state parole board released Kathy Boudin from the Bedford Hills women's prison in 2003, months shy of her 60th birthday. She served 23 years of a life sentence for the murders. She is now a professor at Columbia University.

Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, both members of violent radical groups linked to the Brinks gang, were released early from prison by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001.

Rosenberg had also been accused of helping Chesimard escape. She served 16 years of a 58-year federal sentence for unloading 740 pounds of dynamite and weapons, including a sub-machine gun, from a car. She admitted her role in the New Jersey case, in which she had planned to supply others with explosives for politically motivated bombings.

Evans got 40 years for illegally buying firearms and had been accused of harboring a Brinks fugitive, Marilyn Jean Buck, who was captured in Dobbs Ferry. She also has been involving with bombing federal buildings, like the Capitol in the mid-1980s.

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