Rockland Furious As Brinks Robbery Leader Given Compassionate Parole

NEW CITY, NY — Mutulu Shakur, the mastermind behind the deadly 1981 Brinks robbery, has been released from federal prison on compassionate parole.

He has stage-3 multiple myeloma. His attorney Brad Thomson told NBC News that United States Federal Bureau of Prisons doctors estimated he had six months to live.

Rockland County leaders said Shakur still did not deserve parole.

"How can a compassionate release be granted for someone who played a role in callously killing three people?" said County Executive Ed Day in a statement Monday. "Once someone is murdered, they are gone forever and this individual, Mutulu Shakur, is responsible for not one, not two, but three deaths which included two police officers and a security guard all in the name of robbing a Brinks armored truck in Nanuet in 1981.

"Anyone who chooses to commit such an act deserves to spend the rest of their life in prison. Shakur should have faced the full consequences for his heinous crime no matter how much time has passed. His early release is disrespectful and horribly insulting to the families of those who have been killed who can only see their loved ones at a gravesite."

The news renewed painful memories for Rocklanders who can't forget the deadly day in October 1981 when Shakur's group of domestic terrorists from the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground robbed a Brinks armored truck at the Nanuet Mall of $1.8 million and killed guard Peter Paige. Nyack police tried to stop the robbers at the Route 59 entrance to the New York State Thruway shortly afterward. Sgt. Edward O'Grady and Officer Waverly Brown were killed in the gunfight and Detective Arthur Keenan was wounded.

Three of the participants were caught during the getaway; one died and one was arrested days later in a gunfight with police; and others were arrested months later. Shakur was found and arrested in 1985.

Shakur's release was granted in October by the federal parole commission, which had denied him parole for the ninth time in April, but which said in October that they concluded his deteriorating health made him physically unable to commit more crimes, according to news reports.

It came just months after a request for compassionate leave was denied this summer by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, NBC News reported.

When released last week, the 72-year-old, stepfather of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, had served more than 36 years of his 60-year sentence.

The parole came with conditions including wearing a GPS device, and restricted travel, the New York Amsterdam News reported.

Although the Nyack Police Department no longer exists, every year a memorial service is held at 4 p.m. Oct. 20 at the site of two of the slayings — bringing together survivors of that day along with family members of the victims and hundreds of local, state, regional and national law enforcement officials. A scholarship named in honor of O'Grady and Brown is awarded annually to support Rockland County students seeking a career in law enforcement.

In 2010, Patch.com asked retired South Nyack-Grand View Police Chief Alan Colsey to reflect on the day of the robbery, when he captured part of the gang as they were fleeing. SEE: Killer's Death Stirs Memories of a Deadly October Day in Rockland

Of the other robbers, Kuwasi Balagoon died in prison in 1986; Marilyn Jean Buck, who got away but was arrested in 1985 hiding in Westchester County, was released from a federal prison in Texas a month before dying of cancer in 2010; and Kathy Boudin, who had been paroled in 2003, died in May.

Judith Clark was paroled in 2019 and David Gilbert was paroled in 2021. Samuel Brown continues to serve his 75-year prison term.

• Brinks Robbery Driver Granted Parole; Rockland Seethes
• 40th Anniversary Of Brinks Robbery Marked With Ceremony
• Kathy Boudin, Radical Involved In Deadly Rockland Robbery, Dies
• Brinks Robbery Mastermind Denied Parole