Killer Of Sayreville Councilwoman Gets Life In Prison, With Possibility Of Parole

SAYREVILLE, NJ — Rashid Bynum, the man convicted for killing Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, was sentenced to life in prison Monday, with the possibility of parole.

In June, a Middlesex County jury found Bynum guilty of the first-degree murder. His sentencing was Monday.

He shot and killed the Sayreville councilwoman Feb. 1, 2023: Bynum, 31, shot Dwumfour 14 times at close range, in what Middlesex County prosecutors described as an execution-style murder.

A motive has never been revealed for why he killed her. But Dwumfour and Bynum met through Champions Royal Assembly of God, a Christian mega-church in Newark, which they both attended.

She was a pastor in the church, and several years before her death, she had been asked by church elders to give counseling to Bynum, who had been "in trouble," said former Middlesex County assemblyman John Wisniewski, a lawyer who serves as a media spokesman for the Dwumfour family.

At 7 p.m. that evening, Dwumfour, 30, was returning home to her condo in the Camelot at La Mer complex in Sayreville, where she lived with her daughter, 12. She had just recently been elected a Sayreville councilwoman and she was a member of the Republican party.

She was also recently married, but her husband lived in Nigeria at the time of her murder.

Prosecutors say Bynum planned the murder ahead of time and drove up from Virginia to New Jersey to shoot Dwumfour. Officials said Bynum laid in wait for Dwumfour as she drove home that evening. As she pulled her SUV up to park outside her condo, Bynum emerged from the darkness. Neighbors heard the two exchange words, in what they said sounded like an argument.

Bynum then fired a gun 14 times into Dwumfour's car, killing her. Residents who lived nearby said they saw Dwumfour's car rolling down the street that night, before coming to a stop at the bottom of the street. She was found dead sitting in the driver's seat.

Her daughter was inside the condo at the time.

All 14 of those shell casings ended up matching a gun that was found in a fanny pack in the Virginia home where Bynum was arrested in May 2023, three months after the shooting, said prosecutors. Bynum’s phone GPS records showed he drove up to Sayreville on that date, and returned to Virginia immediately after the shooting that night.

At one point, the two even briefly lived together, in what Wisniewski stressed was not a romantic relationship. Bynum moved in with her and her daughter, then about 6, and lived with them for less than a year, said Wisniewski. Part of her rent may have been paid by the church.

"This was at the suggestion of church elders," Wisniewski said in 2023. "My understanding is she was a pastor for this church and she would go down to conferences at the sister parish in Newport News (Virginia). The leaders of the church in Newport News asked Eunice to provide him with spiritual guidance. It was a coaching relationship. He had gotten into some trouble down in Virginia and they thought having him go up to New Jersey under her tutelage would be beneficial for him."

This was about six years ago.

At some point, Bynum was asked to leave Champions Royal Assembly. However, after her murder, detectives with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office found Bynum stored in Dwumfour's phone under the name "Fire Congress Fellowship," a Bible study the two attended together.