Arrest Made in Murder of NJ Councilwoman

Police in New Jersey said Tuesday that an individual was arrested in connection with the murder of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, ABC’s WABC-TV 7 reported.

Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, of Portsmouth, Va., was taken into custody just shy of 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and charged with first-degree murder and two second-degree counts surrounding an illegal handgun.

According to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone, surveillance footage caught Bynum running from the scene, with mobile phone records later showing that he had traveled from Virginia to New Jersey.

Bynum is now the top suspect in the 30-year-old lawmaker’s fatal Feb. 1 shooting, which occurred inside her car while she was dropping someone off in Sayreville.

Authorities stated that Bynum knew Dwumfour, a longtime single mother who had recently married a Nigerian pastor, from the Champions Royal Assembly Church in Newark. They reportedly worked together at the church.

“The murder has shaken the community and no arrest will bring back the late councilwoman,” Ciccone emphasized, not revealing why officials think Bynum wanted her dead.

“There are no words that can be said to you to make you whole,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin shared. “I did not know Eunice. I wish I had. But I know that she was a public servant.”