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Cuban officials on Friday said that Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper, has died in Havana decades after breaking out of prison and escaping to the communist island.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Chesimard, who was born JoAnne Deborah Byron and was also known as Assata Olugbala Shakur, passed away after living there for years under asylum granted by the Cuban government.
“On September 25, 2025, American citizen Joanne Deborah Byron, ‘Assata Shakur,’ passed away in Havana, Cuba, due to health conditions and advanced age,” the ministry’s statement said.
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In 1977, Chesimard was convicted of the murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster, who left behind a wife and 3-year-old son, during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.
She escaped from prison in 1979 and had been wanted by the FBI ever since. She was a member of the Black Liberation Army, which the FBI describes as “one of the most violent militant organizations of the 1970s.”
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Shakur was never apprehended following her 1979 prison escape.
On May 2, 2019, the 46th anniversary of Foerster’s slaying, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal called Shakur “a domestic terrorist and nothing more.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI and State Department for comment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has heavily criticized the Cuban regime for its refusal to hand over Chesimard to U.S. authorities.
“The Cuban regime continues to provide a safe haven for terrorists and criminals, including fugitives from the United States,” he said in a statement in May to Fox News.
During his first term, President Donald Trump called on Cuba to cough up Chesimard and other American fugitives living on the island.
“Return the fugitives from American justice, including the return of the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard,” Trump declared in 2017. Now the Trump administration is taking tougher measures against Cuba that could eventually result in the fugitives being back on U.S. soil. In January, the administration slapped new sanctions on the Cuban regime, and it is considering tougher actions.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
