Ex-Black Panther pleads guilty to '69 police shooting - 30 days in Jail

CHICAGO (AP) — A former Black Panther Party member who spent years living under an assumed name in Canada pleaded guilty Friday to shooting a Chicago police officer in 1969.
Joseph Pannell, 58, pleaded guilty to an aggravated battery charge in the shooting of then-Chicago police officer Terrence Knox. Pannell, who was a 19-year-old member of the militant group at the time, shot Knox three times in the right arm.

Pannell was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years' probation. He also agreed to give $250,000 to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, a fund for the families of injured or fallen officers. Money for the donation came from Pannell supporters in Toronto and defense attorneys in the Chicago area, according to his attorneys.

Pannell will be released March 7, a month after he returned to Chicago and 39 years to the day after he shot Knox.

Knox, who is no longer with the police department, said his family came up with the idea of the donation. He told reporters Friday that he's not bothered by the seemingly short length of Pannell's sentence.

"This is not 30 days," Knox said. "It's 30 days plus the time ... served in the various prisons, plus two years' probation, plus agreeing and stipulating that he tried to murder me."

Pannell was arrested after the shooting but fled the country when he was released on bail in the early 1970s. He eventually landed in Toronto, where he changed his name to Gary Freeman.

As Freeman, he worked as a researcher in the Toronto Reference Library, married a co-worker and raised a family. Authorities caught up with him in 2004 after matching his fingerprints from Chicago with those taken in Canada for a customs offense committed in 1983.

A Toronto judge ordered him returned to the United States in 2005, but Pannell spent years fighting his extradition until voluntarily returning to Chicago this month.

Neil Cohen, his attorney, lauded Pannell for his willingness to face justice.

"If there's any such thing as redemption and atonement, it's personified by Gary Freeman," Cohen said.

Pannell's wife, Natercia Coelho, told reporters her family has received support "from family, from friends, from people that we've never met, from supporters who know the kind of person that he is."

"He's a wonderful man," Coelho said.

Knox said Friday that while sitting in the courtroom with Pannell was "very hard," his capture and sentencing have brought him a sense of closure.

"I said from day one, if he's innocent, I would shake his hand, if he was guilty, I would close the door. In my mind, the door has now been closed." [MORE]