Rashid Ali Bynum, a 29-year-old from Portsmouth, Virginia, has been indicted on murder and weapons charges related to the death of New Jersey councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, Sayreville’s first elected Black councilwoman.
A Middlesex County grand jury handed down the indictment on Wednesday, August 16th. Bynum was charged not only with Dwumfour’s murder but also with unlawful possession of a handgun and possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose.
Bynum is scheduled to be arraigned on August 28th.
Bynum was arrested in Virginia in May, extradited to New Jersey in July, and is currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick.
Bynum had previously resided in Sayreville, where Dwumfour also lived with her 11-year-old daughter.
Dwumfour, 30, was gunned down in her car outside her rented townhome on February 1st. She was returning home from the grocery store.
Dwumfour had just gotten married a few months before the incident to a fellow pastor from her Nigerian church, Champions Royal Assembly, in Abuja. Her husband had not yet joined her in the United States when she was murdered.
Bynum was listed in Dwumfour’s phone under the acronym “FCF,” or Fire Congress Fellowship, a related church entity.
Dwumfour was deeply involved with the prosperity gospel group, frequently leading services in Newark and serving as a church treasurer.
The prosecutors have not released any details about the case, and a possible motive has not been revealed.
However, when Bynum was arrested, prosecutors did reveal that police had utilized cellphone and vehicle transponder data to reconstruct Bynum’s travels on the day of the murder, successfully linking him to the crime.
Bynum’s appearance also matched the description of the gunman provided by neighbors in Sayreville.
