Virginia man charged with fatal shooting of New Jersey councilman

A 28-year-old Virginia man was charged with murder Tuesday in the February February shooting of a New Jersey city councilman, authorities said.

The man, Rashid Ali Bynum, was taken into custody in Virginia Tuesday morning and awaits extradition, Middlesex County, NJ, prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said at a news conference. He was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a gun, and second-degree possession of a gun for an unlawful purpose.

Ms Ciccone said at the press conference that the slain councilwoman, Eunice K. Dwumfour, 30, had a number associated with Mr Bynum in her mobile contacts, indicating that Ms Dwumfour may have known the man accused of having her murdered.

But Ms. Ciccone gave no motive for the murder and refused to answer questions at the press conference.

Ms. Dwumfour was shot while sitting in her car outside the complex of apartment buildings and duplexes where she lived in Parlin, an unincorporated portion of Sayreville, NJ, just before 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1, authorities said.

The car rolled down a steep slope and then crashed into two cars at the bottom of the hill, police said. Officers responding to reports of a shooting found Ms Dwumfour with several gunshot wounds and she was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Ms. Dwumfour, a Republican, was in her first three-year term as Sayreville councilor at the time of her death, having narrowly defeated an incumbent Democrat to win her seat in 2021. Sayreville.

In a statement about her campaign posted on the Sayreville Republican Party websiteshe said she loved the neighborhood, which has a population of about 45,000 and is located about 30 miles south of Manhattan in Middlesex County, and wanted to help improve the lives of its residents.

“I am fully committed to building a better, stronger Sayreville,” she wrote. “And with your support, we can create a better future for our beautiful city.”

Ms. Dwumfour graduated from Newark public schools and received a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from William Paterson University of New Jersey in 2017. Her career included jobs as a business analyst and professional scrum master, a project manager of sorts, according to a LinkedIn profile active at the time of her death.