MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ - Authorities with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office announced that the man accused of gunning down a New Jersey councilwoman outside of her home as her family was waiting inside has been found guilty of murder, among other charges.
The suspect, Rashid Bynum, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder as well as second-degree weapon possession charges in the 2023 fatal shooting of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, NBC4 reported. His sentencing hearing has been scheduled for August 18th. If convicted, he faces 30 years to life in prison.
Court records show that Bynum has a lengthy rap sheet, including allegations of fraud, forgery, and theft stretching back to 2013, Fox News reported. He faced firearm charges in Virginia in 2015 and again in Maryland in 2019. In the 2015 case, he pleaded guilty to illegally carrying a concealed weapon and received a sentence of three years' probation.
On February 1, 2023, police found Dwumfour with multiple gunshot wounds inside her car outside of her home. Bynum wasn't tracked down until May 30, 2023, nearly four months after the deadly encounter. He was arrested in Virginia, and according to officials, previously lived in Sayreville, where Dwumfour resided with her 11-year-old daughter, ABC7 reported.
Prosecutors said that Bynum knew Dwumfour from the church where she served as a pastor. They said that cell phone pings showed Bynum traveling from Virginia to New Jersey, and then back to Virginia. Prosecutors said he was in New Jersey at the time of the murder. Investigators also traced his vehicle location data from the night of the killing. Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone cited surveillance video and E-ZPass records. Bynum also matched the description of the gunman given by neighbors in Sayreville.
Dwumfour was a pastor in a prosperity gospel church, Champions Royal Assembly, that is based in Nigeria. She was also an officer of a related entity, the Fire Congress Fellowship, which 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," Ciccone said.
Court records and tax filings suggest that the church finances in the U.S. were tight and that Dwumfour had been named in a series of landlord-tenant disputes in Newark dating from 2017 to 2020 involving the fellowship. The fellowship had seen its income drop from about $250,000 in 2017 to just $350 in 2020.
Dwumfour, a Republican, was elected to her first three-year term in 2021 when she ousted a Democratic incumbent. She also served as a member of the Sayreville Human Rights Council. She was a single mother, a business analyst, and a part-time EMT. Neighbors said she was very active in church.
