SAYREVILLE, N.J. (1010 WINS) — An arrest has been made in the fatal shooting of New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, authorities announced Tuesday.
Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, of Virginia, was taken into custody Tuesday morning, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said at a news conference.
He was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun and second-degree possession for a handgun for an unlawful purpose.
Dwumfour, 30, was gunned down inside her SUV outside her Sayreville home on Feb. 1.
Ciccone said the investigation is still underway and didn’t directly address a motive in Dwumfour's death. She said Bynum was linked to a church that Dwumfour belonged to.
The prosecutor said surveillance footage showed Bynum fleeing the site after the shooting. She added that Bynum's cellphone indicated he traveled from Virginia to New Jersey at the time of the murder.
Dwumfour, a Newark native, was a single mother living in Sayreville who had recently married a pastor who lived in Nigeria.
The Republican was elected to her first three-year term in 2021, when she ousted a Democratic incumbent. Colleagues recalled her as a soft-spoken devout Christian who could maintain her composure in contentious situations.
The case has reverberated from New Jersey to West Africa, with touchpoints including politics, religion and money that echo across continents.
"Eunice was too good of a person to let (her death) go unanswered," Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick said at a Feb. 8 memorial service, where hundreds mourned the stylish preacher known as "Pastor Eunney_K."
"That smile" of hers, Kilpatrick said, "is not going to let us give up."
Bynum is now awaiting extradition to New Jersey, where he will be held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional facility pending a pre-trial detention hearing in Superior Court.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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