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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.
In 1977, she was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison. She escaped from prison in 1979 and lived underground before surfacing in Cuba in 1984.
The FBI and the New Jersey attorney general each offered a $1 million reward for her capture.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan said they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Chesimard’s reported passing.
“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,” both said in a joint statement. “Sadly, it appears she has passed without being held fully accountable for her heinous crimes.”
“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,” they added. “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.”
Chesimard, who regarded herself as a godmother and step-aunt to late rapper Tupac Shakur, was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List in 2013.
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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On May 2, 2019, the 46th anniversary of Foerster’s slaying, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal called Chesimard “a domestic terrorist and nothing more.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI and State Department for comment.
Black Lives Matter previously used Chesimard’s case to illustrate what the group called Cuba’s “solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent.” In 2021, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., blamed the U.S. embargo for Cuba’s economic devastation while at the same time praising the Cuban regime for its effort to protect “Black revolutionaries like Assata Shakur.”
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.
A State Department spokesperson said the Cuban government informed the U.S. Embassy in Havana about Chesimard’s death.
“On behalf of her victims, we regret that the Cuban dictatorship for decades protected this fugitive and prevented her from facing justice in our nation,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We call on the regime to return other fugitives so they can face justice once and for all.”
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.
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace and Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
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