The man accused of killing a New Jersey councilwoman right outside her home as her family was waiting inside was found guilty of murder and other charges, according to the county prosecutor's office.
Rashid Bynum was convicted of first-degree murder as well as second-degree weapon possession charges in the 2023 shooting death of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said.
Bynum's sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 18.
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WATCH HEREDwumfour, who served on the Sayreville Borough Council for ab out a year, was gunned down on Feb. 1, 2023. Bynum wasn't tracked down until May 30, nearly four months after the deadly shooting.
Investigators said Bynum had known Dwumfour, but it was not clear how well the two knew each other. The only connection between the two police have is that the suspect was linked to the church Dwumfour attended.
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SIGN UP Investigators traced Bynum's travels from his cellphone and vehicle location data from the night of the killing, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said after the arrest was made, citing surveillance video and E-ZPass records. He also matched the description of the gunman given by neighbors in Sayreville.
Bynum was taken into custody outside a residence in Chesapeake, Virginia, without incident. Attorney information was not clear for Bynum.
According to a family attorney, neither Dwumfour's parents nor sibling recognized the name or picture of the suspect. Dwumfour, who grew up in Newark, did live in Virginia at one point, and family lawyer John Wisniewski said Bynum had previously lived in Sayreville. But beyond that, he did not know the nature of their relationship and the prosecutor declined to discuss a possible motive.
Dwumfour was a pastor in a prosperity gospel church, Champions Royal Assembly, that is based in Nigeria, and she got married there in Nov. 2022 to a fellow pastor from Abuja. She was also an officer of a related entity, the Fire Congress Fellowship, that has a branch in Virginia. Bynum was listed in her cellphone contacts under that group’s acronym.
"A search of the victim's phone revealed Bynum as a contact with the acronym FCF," said Ciccone.
Court records and tax filings suggest that church finances in the U.S. were tight. Dwumfour had been named in a series of landlord-tenant disputes in Newark dating from 2017 to 2020 involving the fellowship, which had seen its income drop from about $250,000 in 2017 to just $350 in 2020.
EUNICE DWUMFOUR
Through the months before the arrest was made, the councilwomen's family members expressed their frustration. Dwumfour's daughter described what she heard just outside her window the night of the shooting, as the family was waiting inside for the mother to finish parking her vehicle.
"We're waiting for my mom to look for a parking space, and then she was taking a lot of time so we started calling her over and over again, but it wouldn't pick up. And then we heard gunshots and we started calling the police," Nicole Teliano told the AP.
"It's so painful. It's so painful. Every day by day, we think about her. We cry, I cry every day by day," her husband, Peter Ezechukwu, previously said.
Dwumfour, a 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.
Associated Press reporter Maryclaire Dale contributed to this report.
