VA Man Charged In Slaying Of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour

SAYREVILLE, NJ — A Virginia man has been arrested and charged in the murder of Eunice Dwumfour, the 30-year-old Sayreville councilwoman who was fatally shot multiple times on the night of Feb. 1 outside her condo.

Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, of Portsmouth, Virginia, was arrested without incident at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday outside a home in Chesapeake City, Virginia. He was arrested by law enforcement from both New Jersey and Virginia, plus the FBI.

He was charged with first-degree murder and multiple illegal guns offenses. He is currently awaiting extradition to New Jersey.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone did not reveal any possible motive as to why Bynum allegedly killed the first-term Republican councilwoman and mother, and she did not take any questions from the media.

However, Bynum was stored in Dwumfour's phone, and he had done Internet searches on Champions Royal Assembly, the Newark church where Dwumfour worked as a pastor, the prosecutor revealed Tuesday.

Bynum was listed in the woman's phone under the acronym "FCF," believed to stand for Fire Congress Fellowship. It is a Christian fellowship associated with Champions Royal Assembly. Dwumfour was a pastor at Royal Assembly, known as "Pastor Eunice D.," and she often gave passionate sermons from the pulpit, the Home News-Tribune previously reported.

A search of Bynum's phone showed that on the day of the murder he did Google searches for Champion Royal Assembly church.

He also did Internet searches on the Sayreville neighborhood where she lived and what magazines were compatible with a certain type of gun. A handgun has also been recovered at an address in Smithfield, Virginia that Bynum returned to after Dwumfour's murder, said the prosecutor.

Ciccone also revealed that police tracked Bynum through the GPS on his mobile phone: Police learned his phone traveled from Virginia to the Sayreville apartment complex where she was killed. And then the phone traveled back to where he lives in Virginia immediately after the shooting.

"After an extensive investigation it was determined that on Feb. 1 a mobile phone traveled from Virginia to New Jersey and after the murder, immediately returned to Virginia thereafter,” said Prosecutor Ciccone. "Bynum's device (cell phone) was located in the area of Gondek Drive and Ernston Road immediately prior to the murder."

Records also showed his mobile phone traveled through EZ-Pass readers at the same time as a white Hyundai Elantra that was later traced to him. The car was a rental and Bynum rented it in Virginia on Jan. 31, the day before the murder.

A witness at the scene the night of the murder described the shooter as a thin, African-American man with ear-length braids or dreads. Another witness also reported seeing a "suspiciously parked white Hyundai" on Dwumfour's street just minutes before the murder.

"This was a complex, extensive case, with painstaking police work every single moment until today, and will continue until after today," said Prosecutor Ciccone. "The murder has shaken the community and no arrest will bring back the late councilwoman. However, I do trust that justice will be found through the criminal justice process."

Dwumfour's father, Prince Dwumfour, and the family's pastor was present Tuesday. Dwumfour's family has previously said they were immensely frustrated with the lack of progress or information in their daughter's murder, which has puzzled many in New Jersey for the past four months.

Attorney General Matt Platkin addressed Dwumfour's family Tuesday and said he hoped today was "the beginning of the healing process and the beginning of a sense of justice."

You can watch Tuesday's press conference here:

The night of the murder

It was 7:22 p.m. Feb. 1 when a masked gunman, dressed all in black, waited in the dark for Dwumfour, 30, as she drove home to her condo at the Camelot at La Mer complex in Sayreville. The young councilwoman was shot multiple times inside her car as she pulled in to park outside her home.

Her 11-year-old daughter had been waiting for her inside the townhouse, and she was not injured in the shooting, police said. In fact, it was her daughter who heard the gunshots, looked out the window and called 911, NJ.com reported.

Her condo is on Check Avenue, and as she pulled her white Nissan SUV around the corner at the top of her street, Dwumfour stopped her car and appeared to say something to the man. The two appeared to briefly argue, indicating that Dwumfour knew the man who shot her.

The gunman then fired multiple times directly at Dwumfour.

Slain, she slumped over the driving wheel and her SUV rolled all the way down Check Avenue, crashing into several other cars parked at the bottom of the street. Video shows the man running off in the direction of the Garden State Parkway, which runs right next to her condo.

Prosecutor Ciccone said immediately after the shooting that the public was not at risk, implying that Dwumfour knew her alleged murderer.

Dwumfour was Republican and the first Black councilwoman elected in Sayreville. She was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Ghana. She earned a degree in women’s studies from William Paterson University in 2017 and went on to a career in politics and working as a preacher.

“We want to thank the law enforcement community, especially the Sayreville Police and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, for their diligent and dedicated efforts in investigating the murder of Councilwoman Dwumfour,” said state Senator Joseph Vitale, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, all Democrats who represent the part of Middlesex County where Dwumfour lived. “This is welcome news to the Sayreville community, and we are confident justice will be served. We hope this will bring some measure of comfort to Councilwoman Drumfour’s family. Our community’s prayers continue to be with them.”

Prior: Family Of Slain Sayreville Councilwoman: We Want Answers (March 22)

Fatal Shooting Of Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour: What We Know (Feb. 2)