Killing of NJ Councilwoman: What We Know So Far

SAYREVILLE, NJ — On Tuesday, nearly four months to the day after it happened, law enforcement announced they made an arrest in the killing of Sayreville councilwoman and mother Eunice Dwumfour, who was shot to death inside her car as she turned down her street to park on a cold winter night.

Dwumfour's killing stunned and saddened many in New Jersey. Up until Tuesday, there was no new information or leads in what was starting to look like a cold case. While Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced a charge of first-degree murder against Rashid Bynum, 28, she did not speak at all about a motive for why he allegedly killed her.

Bynum has been on the run for the past four months, until 10:45 Tuesday morning when he was taken into custody in Chesapeake City, Virginia by police officers and the FBI.

Here's what we know so far:

1. Dwumfour and her accused killer attended same church; may have been in the same Bible study group. His number was saved in her phone: Dwumfour was a part-time pastor at Champions Royal Assembly, a large Evangelical church in Newark that is connected to a mega-church in Nigeria. The young woman was known as "Pastor Eunice D." and she gave impassioned sermons from the pulpit; you can see some of them on YouTube. Dwumfour created a Bible study group at the church, called Fire Congress Fellowship or FCF.

Bynum's number was stored in Dwumfour's phone as "FCF," (Fire Congress Fellowship), the prosecutor revealed.

Bynum attended the church from 2015 to 2017, the church's chief financial officer Wilson Adubasim told NJ.com Wednesday. He said Bynum always came to church alone, and he was not aware of any relationship between the two, telling NJ.com: “I’m not seeing any reason why he would (kill Dwumfour). He wasn’t a bad kid."

2. Dwumfour provide "pastoral services" to Bynum:

Christian Onuoha, another Republican Sayreville Councilman who ran with Dwumfour in 2021, also attended that church. He told Gothamist that Dwumfour had provided "pastoral services and help" to Bynum about five years ago.

He did not elaborate. Onuoha said not seen Bynum at the church in several years since.

“To hear that someone had that kind of hate in their heart is really hard to hear,” he told Gothamist.

On the day Dwumfour was killed, Bynum had done Internet searches on his phone for Champions Royal Assembly church, said the prosecutor. He also did Internet searches on the Sayreville neighborhood where she lived and what magazines were compatible with a certain type of gun, a gun that was later recovered at a Smithfield, Virginia home that Bynum returned to after Dwumfour's murder, said the prosecutor.

3. Bynum aspired to be a rapper and a boxer. Developed a criminal history.

Abudasim also told NJ.com that Bynum spoke about becoming a rapper or a boxer, and that in 2016 he wanted to prepare a rap to welcome a church leader visiting from Nigeria. Bynum also briefly attended Bible study groups on the Rutgers-Newark campus.

But after 2017, Bynum stopped being seen at the church. He relocated to the Chesapeake, Virginia area and began to run afoul of the law, a separate NJ.com article reported.

From 2013 to 2020, Virginia court records show Bynum was arrested and charged with various different crimes, from illegal gun charges, drug possession and credit card larceny. MyCentralJersey reports he has been charged with a total of 37 criminal violations in recent years, mostly for credit card fraud and two counts of illegal gun possession. He briefly served some jail time, and several criminal cases are still pending against him in Virginia.

4. Bynum was tracked by police using the GPS in his cell phone and EZ Pass records.

Police obtained Bynum's phone and they searched the GPS on it, learning that the phone had traveled from Virginia to Dwumfour's Sayreville apartment complex just before the Feb. 1 shooting.

And then the phone traveled back to where Bynum lives in Virginia immediately after the shooting that night.

"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 Dwumfour was killed.

5. Dwumfour's family had complained there were no leads in the case.

Dwumfour's parents and the family's pastor had long expressed frustration that Middlesex County Prosecutor Ciccone was extremely tight-lipped as she investigated their daughter's murder.

Dwumfour's father, sister and pastor were invited to Tuesday's press conference, and they sat stone faced in the background as the prosecutor announced Bynum's arrest.

In March, the family held a press conference calling on the prosecutor to keep them in the loop as the investigation continued (Ciccone declined to comment at the time), and also beseeching anyone in the public to come forward with what they might know in the case.

"We know there is someone out there who knows what they have done," the family's pastor, Karl Badu, said in March. "Who would hate Eunice?"

"I need justice for my daughter," said her mother, Mary Dwumfour as she broke down crying that day. "Please, God, help us."

“They’re really struggling with the why,” former Sayreville Assemblyman John Wisniewski, now working as the family's lawyer, told the New York Times this week.

Tuesday: VA Man Charged In Slaying Of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour (May 30)

Dwumfour, 30, was a barrier breaker: She was the daughter of immigrants from Ghana. She went to Newark public schools and graduated from William Paterson University; she was pursuing a career. She was a single mother raising her 11-year-old daughter, who lived with her, but also regularly saw her father. She had just been elected as a Councilwoman, the first Black elected official in Sayreville history, and she was a Republican. She was also deeply committed to her Christian faith and was a pastor at multiple churches in New Jersey — including one where she met the young man accused of killing her.

Ciccone says that man, Bynum, rented a car and drove up from Virginia on Feb. 1. He dressed all in black, including a black face mask, and waited outside her Sayreville condo. At 7:22 p.m., as she turned the corner onto her street, Dwumfour noticed him and the two exchanged words, witnesses said. She spoke to him from her car, he from the sidewalk. It sounded like an argument.

He then fired multiple gunshots at Dwumfour, killing her, said the prosecutor. He ran off towards the Garden State Parkway.

With Dwumfour unconscious behind the wheel (she would later be pronounced dead), her SUV slowly rolled forward down her street, crashing into parked cars at the bottom. Her daughter, 11, was waiting on the third floor of their home for her mom to come home, and she called 911 after hearing gunshots. It is unknown how much she witnessed that night.

Here is Prosecutor Ciccone announcing the murder and gun charges against Bynum Tuesday: