Cuba says Assata Shakur, convicted cop killer and FBI fugitive, dies in Havana
Cuban Foreign Ministry says Joanne Deborah Byron, known as Assata Shakur, died Sept. 25, 2025, after years living in asylum in Cuba; she was convicted of the 1973 New Jersey Turnpike killing and escaped prison in 1979.
Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday that Joanne Deborah Byron, known as Assata Shakur, died in Havana on Sept. 25, 2025, after years living in asylum granted by the Cuban government. The ministry said she died due to health conditions and advanced age. Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron, was convicted in 1977 of the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, who died in a 1973 shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. She escaped from prison in 1979 and had been a fugitive ever since. The FBI describes Shakur as a member of the Black Liberation Army, which it says was one of the most violent militant organizations of the 1970s.
Shakur lived in Cuba for decades after escaping, and she remained in asylum status granted by Havana. In 2019, on the 46th anniversary of Foerster's slaying, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal called Shakur a domestic terrorist and nothing more. The case has lingered in public memory in New Jersey and among U.S. law enforcement as a symbol of the era's political violence.
Friday's Cuban statement marks the first formal confirmation of her death by a government body. Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI and the State Department for comment, but no public response was provided in this report. U.S. authorities have long identified Shakur as an FBI Most Wanted fugitive, and her case has drawn ongoing attention from law enforcement and lawmakers. The Cuban government has long granted asylum to Shakur, a position that has kept the dispute between Havana and U.S. authorities on the diplomatic and public-safety agendas for decades. The death, if verified by independent sources, would close a controversial chapter in the history of 1970s-era domestic terrorism allegations and the broader struggle over political violence in the era.
The Foerster case continues to be cited in discussions about the use of political violence and the pursuit of fugitives across borders. For families connected to Foerster and others impacted by the incidents of that period, the news of Shakur's death may reinforce longstanding debates about accountability and justice decades after the events.