New Jersey State Police, New Jersey
End of Watch: Wednesday, May 2, 1973
Age: 34
Tour of Duty: 3 years
Badge Number: 2608
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: May 2, 1973
Weapon Used: Officer's handgun
Suspect Info: At large
Trooper Werner Foerster was shot and killed with his own service weapon after backing up another trooper who had stopped a vehicle containing two men and a woman on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The subjects started struggling with the troopers and disarmed Trooper Foerster. One of the men opened fire, killing Trooper Foerster and wounding the other trooper. Despite the wounds, the other trooper returned fire and killed one of the subjects.
The three subjects were members of the Black Liberation Army. The two surviving subjects were convicted of Trooper Foerster's murder, but the female suspect escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she has remained at large. The man who shot Trooper Werner was sentenced to life in prison. He was denied parole in 2011, but in September 2014, the New Jersey Superior Court overturned the ruling and ordered that the subject be paroled.
An accomplice who helped the female subject escape was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 1982. He was arrested in 1986 for his involvement in the 1981 murders of two Nyack, New York, police officers.
Trooper Foerster was a United States Army Vietnam veteran and had served with the New Jersey State Police Department for almost three years. He is survived by his wife and two children.
He is buried in Washington Monumental Cemetery, South River, New Jersey. The Route 18 overpass on the New Jersey Turnpike has been dedicated as the Werner Foerster Overpass in his honor.