The mother of a New Jersey councilwoman who was gunned down in her car outside her Sayreville townhouse in February was arrested in court Monday after a judge denied bail for the suspected killer.
Rashid Ali Bynum, a 29-year-old Virginia man, is accused of driving to New Jersey in a rental car and killing Eunice Dwumfour, 30, in the parking lot outside her home as her 12-year-old daughter was inside.
The case rattled Dwumfour’s colleagues, family and friends as police spent months tracking down a suspect who they now say lived more than 300 miles away.
EUNICE DWUMFOUR MURDER: NEW JERSEY POLICE ARREST MAN MONTHS AFTER SLAYING OF REPUBLICAN COUNCILWOMAN
This undated photo provided by the Sayreville, New Jersey, Borough Council shows Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour. New Jersey prosecutors said Tuesday, May 30, 2023, that they arrested a Virginia man on murder and gun charges in the February death of the local councilwoman, who was found fatally shot in her SUV outside her home. (Sayreville Borough Council via AP)
Prosecutors allege Bynum is the man who approached Dwumfour’s car on Feb. 1 and shot her multiple times through the driver’s side window before running off into the darkness.
However, after a Middlesex County judge denied him bail Monday, the victim’s mother allegedly got into a scuffle and wound up handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom, according to NJ.com.
He had briefly been recruited by the victim to her Bible study, the Fire Congress Fellowship, but they had a falling out for reasons that have not been made public.
Rashid Ali Bynum has been arrested in connection with the February shooting of New Jersey Republican Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour in Sayreville, New Jersey. His number was in her phone in affiliation with her former church, according to prosecutors. (Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office)
The two met in Virginia, and when Dwumfour moved back to New Jersey, Bynum went there too for a while, according to prosecutors. At some point, Bynum left the church and returned to his home state.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Eze Kings, Eunice Dwumfour’s husband, told Fox News Digital. Monday was the first time he had seen the suspect in person, he said.
He is hoping for justice, and his mother-in-law, Mary Dwumfour, “is fine” after the scuffle, he added.
His late wife was a former EMT and pastor who won an upset victory over an incumbent Democrat in the Sayreville Borough Council. The couple had just married months before the murder. They met abroad through their church, and Kings lives in Nigeria, where he was at the time of the slaying.
Photo obtained by Fox News Digital shows aftermath of the shooting involving New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
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Bynum was arrested at his home in Chesapeake City, Virginia, in May. Police found Bynum’s number saved in Dwumfour’s phone with the letters FCF, an acronym for the Fire Congress Fellowship, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said at the time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
