Suspect agrees to return

A former Black Panther Party member accused of shooting a Chicago police officer in 1969 and then fleeing to Canada wants to return to the United States to stand trial on the charges filed against him, according to his attorney. Chicago authorities claim Joseph Coleman Pannell, now 58, shot officer Terrence Knox after the officer stopped him for questioning outside a South Side store. Pannell was free on bond in that case in 1973 when he fled Chicago. Pannell, who changed his name to Douglas Gary Freeman and was a library research assistant outside Toronto, has waived extradition and will return to Chicago within 30 days, his attorney, Neil Cohen, told a Chicago newspaper. Pannell has been jailed since his 2004 arrest in a suburb of Toronto. A judge in 2005 ordered Pannell returned to Chicago to face trial on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery, but Pannell's lawyers appealed, saying Pannell feared for his life and would not get a fair trial in the U.S.