William Joseph Quinn, known as Liam Quinn, (born 1949) is an American former

volunteer Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

in the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

who shot dead

Stephen Tibble PC Stephen Andrew Tibble, (1953 – 26 February 1975) was a police officer in London's Metropolitan Police Service. During a chase through West Kensington, the unarmed Tibble was fatally shot by Liam Quinn, an American member of the Provisio ...

, an off-duty police officer, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on 26 February 1975. Tibble saw Quinn fleeing from the police after he had been noticed acting suspiciously near a house in which Quinn and members of the Balcombe Street Gang were later found to have been preparing

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

s. The unarmed Tibble chased Quinn on his motorbike and, while attempting to stop him, was fatally shot twice in the chest.

Extradition

Quinn escaped to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in the aftermath of the shooting and served a short prison sentence after his arrest for assaulting a police officer there. After his release in 1978 he returned to his hometown of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

but was arrested in 1981 and later extradited to England in February 1988 where he was convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

and jailed for life with a recommended minimum term of 35 years. Quinn served 11 years before he was released in April 1999, aged 51, along with the Balcombe Street Gang, under the terms of the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

. While with the IRA, Quinn affected an Irish accent and was tagged with the nickname "Yankee Joe" because of his American origins.''The Road To Balcombe Street'', Steven Moysey, Haworth (2007),

References

Living people 1949 births American people convicted of murdering police officers American people imprisoned in the United Kingdom American people of Irish descent Irish people convicted of murdering police officers Irish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Irish republicans People convicted of murder by England and Wales People extradited from the United States People extradited to the United Kingdom Military personnel from San Francisco Prisoners and detainees of the Republic of Ireland Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales Provisional Irish Republican Army members {{Ireland-paramilitary-bio-stub