Man To Be Returned From Canada In 1969 Shooting

(AP) CHICAGO Thirty-seven years after an Army deserter who had joined the Black Panther Party allegedly shot a Chicago police officer on a South Side street, a top Canadian official has ordered him returned to the United States for trial in the 1969 shooting, according to a published report.

The former Black Panther, Joseph Coleman Pannell, now 56, was facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery when he fled Chicago while free on bond in 1973, the Chicago Sun-Tiimes reported.

Pannell been jailed since his 2004 arrest in a suburb of Toronto, where he had been living under an assumed name for more than 20 years.

One year ago, a judge in Toronto ordered Pannell returned to Chicago to face trial, but his lawyers appealed to Canadian Justice Minister Vic Toews, saying Pannell feared for his life and would not get a fair trial in the United States.

Toews denied Pannell's request in a written ruling Thursday, but Pannell's attorneys say they will mount one last appeal of Toews' decision, which will take at least six months.

Chicago authorities say Pannell shot former Officer Terrence Knox after Knox stopped him for questioning outside a South Side store.

Knox was partially paralyzed from three bullet wounds, and credits another officer with saving his life by using his finger to plug a torn artery in his left arm.

Under the name of Douglas Gary Freeman, Pannell had been working in recent years as a researcher at the Toronto Reference Library. He had married in Canada and raised four children.

Authorities say Pannell was tracked down and identified by a 23-year-old fingerprint. In 1983, he was working at Concordia University in Montreal when he was stopped at the Canadian border for trying to sneak a camera into the country. He paid a $300 fine. His prints remained on file.