Man Indicted Wednesday For Sayreville Councilwoman's Murder

SAYREVILLE, NJ — The man accused of fatally shooting Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour in February was indicted Wednesday for her murder.

Rashid Ali Bynum, 29, was indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury on one charge of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree illegal gun possession.

Bynum was arrested in Portsmouth, Virginia on May 30. However, he had unrelated illegal gun charges pending against him in Virginia and he was not extradited to New Jersey until late July.

Bynum is currently housed at the Middlesex County Jail in North Brunswick.

His first public appearance in Middlesex County criminal court is scheduled for August 28, which will be his arraignment and detention hearing before Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone. At that hearing, Judge Paone will decide if Bynum will be held in jail until trial, or released.

Dwumfour is the 30-year-old woman who was fatally shot multiple times on the night of Feb. 1 outside her condo in Sayreville. She was a first-term Republican councilwoman and mother of one child, a daughter, age 12.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone has never alleged any possible motive as to why Bynum allegedly killed her.

But the two knew each other from church.

The young man and woman appear to have been — even briefly — in the same Bible study at Champions Royal Assembly, a Christian church in Newark. Bynum was stored in Dwumfour's phone under the acronym "FCF," believed to stand for Fire Congress Fellowship, a Bible study fellowship in the church.

Dwumfour was a pastor at Royal Assembly.

On the day of the shooting, Bynum allegedly searched online for information on the Champion Royal Assembly church and the Sayreville area, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone previously said. Bynum’s phone GPS also showed that it traveled from Virginia to New Jersey the day of the shooting and returned to Virginia immediately after.

Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Amber Gibbs presented the indictment argument to the Middlesex County grand jury.