On Friday, May 2nd in 1973, New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster approached a car that had been pulled over by police for a broken taillight on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Inside were three armed members of the radical Black Liberation Army.
Gunfire erupted, and in the shoot-out, Officer Foerster was hit four times and killed. Now, decades later, the officer’s cold-blooded execution is spurring new calls for justice.
One of the militants in the car, Joanne Chesimard, has lived a life on the lam. In 1979, she escaped from a New Jersey prison and, in the decades since, she has been living freely in Cuba.
“She should be serving a life sentence,” says the current head of the state police, New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick J. Callahan
“I want her yesterday, and I have Trooper Foerster’s handcuffs ready to go on her when she lands on that tarmac, wherever she is.”
There are new calls to extradite her and the estimated 70 fugitives from U.S. justice, including convicted murderers, airline hijackers and others who continue to enjoy safe haven in Cuba.
President Donald Trump has called on the Cuban regime to cough up Chesimard and the others.
“Return the fugitives from American justice, including the return of the cop-killer Joanne Chesimard,” he 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.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denouncing the Communist government’s protection of American criminals.
“The Cuban regime continues to provide safe haven for terrorists and criminals, including fugitives from the United States,” he said in a statement to Fox News.
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“The brutal killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster will never be forgotten, and we will never stop fighting for justice.”
President Obama normalized relations with the Cuban government in 2015, and while a few fugitives have been returned, terrorists were not among them. In 2018, James R. Ray, a lawyer wanted for murder in Montclair, New Jersey, was extradited by Cuba back to the state. He was convicted and died in jail while awaiting sentencing in 2023.
In his first term, President Trump scrapped the Obama agreements, and he has since put Cuba back on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, which President Biden had removed.
“I understand it’s a sovereign nation and that there’s no extradition policy, but here’s somebody who has murdered a New Jersey State Trooper who lives free, and that just is painful for law enforcement, not only in New Jersey, but across the country,” says Colonel Callahan. “Anything that I can do to bring her back to serve out the rest of her sentence is what I’m going to do.”
“It’s disgusting that some killer like this would be just roaming the streets in Cuba,” says Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla. “It makes you mad. It makes you mad that Cuba harbors these terrorists and these fugitives.”
Scott is sponsoring a Senate bill, “The Frank Connor and Trooper Werner Foerster Justice Act,” demanding the fugitives’ return. Rubio first introduced the legislation before he was named secretary of state.
Scott is calling for even stronger measures against the Communist nation.
“We have to make sure there’s no money that goes there. They’re clearly a state sponsor of terrorism,” Scott says.” Trump did the right thing by putting them back on.”
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The bill is also named for another victim, Frank Connor. In 1975, Connor, a New York City banker, was having lunch in the historic Fraunces Tavern when a bomb exploded, killing him and three others, and wounding more than 50 people. The device had been planted by the Puerto Rican terrorist group “Armed Forces for National Liberation” (FALN), which was responsible for a wave of terrorist bombings in New York City in the 1970s.
The FALN’s chief bombmaker, Willie Morales, also escaped a U.S. prison to find safety in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
“We have convicted terrorists who we do have the power to get back,” says Connor’s son, Joe, who has been in the forefront of the push to return the fugitives. He says President Trump can achieve that.
“Trump absolutely can use economic power,” he says. “We have these convicted terrorists 90 miles from home, we have the economic leverage on Cuba to bring them back. Cut the deal, bring these guys back, and then we will talk about how we are going to assist Cuba in the future.”
“It would really mean something, that there is justice for my dad.”
In January, Secretary of State Rubio honored Connor and the other Fraunces Tavern victims on the anniversary of the FALN attack.
“We must also recommit ourselves to demanding that wanted U.S. fugitives under the Cuban regime’s protection be brought to justice. We owe the victims and the American people our unwavering commitment to holding the Cuban regime accountable.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy marked the anniversary of Foerster’s murder by saying, “As we honor his memory, our commitment to justice has never wavered. More than half a century later, we continue to pursue his murderer’s repatriation to New Jersey to face the consequences of her actions.”
Colonel Callahan notes that in its 104-year history, the state police force has lost 78 troopers in the line of duty, but that Foerster’s death and Chesimard’s freedom remain “an open wound.”
“There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not trying to do something about bringing her back here,” he says.
Fox News Producer Maria Paronich contributed to this story.
