A woman on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list convicted of killing a New Jersey State Police trooper more than 50 years ago has died in Cuba, where she fled after an armed prison escape.
Joanne Debora Byron, also known as Joanne Chesimard and Assata Shakur, died in Havana at age 78 due to “health conditions and advanced age,” the Cuba Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday.
Byron was known as Joanne Chesimard when a gun battle broke out during traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in Middlesex County in 1973 and and Trooper Werner Foerster was shot and killed.
NJ State Police and NJ Turnpike Authority honor slain Trooper Werner Foerster
She broke out of a New Jersey prison in 1979 and escaped to Cuba.
Chesimard had been on the State Police’s most-wanted list for decades. A $2 million reward had been offered for her capture.
The car Chesimard and two others were riding in was pulled over by trooper James Harper and Foerster on the Turnpike, authorities have said.
Joanne Chesimard
All three were armed and members of the Black Liberation Army. Chesimard fired the first shot, wounding Harper in the shoulder, authorities said.
She got out of the car and continued to exchange gunfire with the troopers until she was wounded, authorities said.
The rear seat passenger, James Coston, Chesimard’s brother-in-law, also shot at the troopers until he was killed by Harper’s gunfire.
Foerster, authorities said, struggled alongside the car with Clark Edward Squire, the driver, until he was shot four times.
Once he was on the ground, someone took Foerster’s service revolver and fired two shots into his head, police said.
Chesimard’s attorneys denied she shot Foerster, saying she was too seriously wounded to pull a trigger.
She and Squire, also known as Sundiata Acoli, were convicted of murder in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison.
The state Supreme Court ordered Acoli’s release from prison in 2022, overturning previous parole denials and determining the then 85-year-old man was no longer a threat. Supporters of his release said he has dementia.
Sundiati Acoli
Two years after being sent to prison, three gunmen posing as visitors broke Chesimard out of what is now known as the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Hunterdon County.
Members of the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground carried out the raid, authorities said.
Chesimard resurfaced in Cuba in 1984.
State authorities repeatedly tried to extradite Chesimard, including an appeal to Pope John Paul II, who traveled to Cuba in 1998.
A New Jersey Assemblyman who co-sponsored a bill calling for Cuba to extradite Chesimard to the U.S. said her death is another opportunity to remember Foerster.
“It will forever remain a tragedy that justice was never served in the senseless murder of Trooper Foerster,” Assemblyman Michael Inganamort, R-Morris, said in a statement. “Joanne Chesimard was a fugitive who will never be held accountable in the United States, but New Jersey can and will always remember Trooper Foester for his duty and sacrifice.”
FBI most wanted terrorist Joanne Chesimard dies in Cuba
Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan released a joint statement on the announcement.
“Earlier this morning, we spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who informed us that the government of Cuba has announced the death of U.S. fugitive Joanne Chesimard, who viciously murdered New Jersey State Trooper and Vietnam War veteran Werner Foerster.
“For years, we have worked with the State Department to bring Chesimard back to New Jersey, so she could face justice for the cold-blooded murder of an American hero. Sadly, it appears she has passed without being held fully accountable for her heinous crimes,” the statement said.
“We mourn Trooper Foerster’s loss every day, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his widow, Rosie, their son, Eric, and the entire New Jersey State Police family.
“Unlike his killer, Trooper Foerster never had a chance to live out his days in peace. But we remain fully committed to honoring his memory and sacrifice. We will vigorously oppose any attempt to repatriate Chesimard’s remains to the United States.”
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