Rashid Ali Bynum, the man implicated in the 2023 shooting death of Ghanaian-American New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, was on Monday sentenced to life in prison.
According to ABC7 New York, Bynum, 30, was handed the life sentence after a jury found him guilty of Dwumfour’s murder in June. Bynum fatally shot Dwumfour outside her home on February 1, 2023, and authorities at the time labeled the incident as a possible targeted attack.
“Your mother should be disgraced that she brought you into this world. She needs to take you out of it,” Dwumfour’s sister, Priscilla, said.
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“I met my wife, pastor Eunice, I call her my angel, my love. I call her my heartbeat,” Dwumfour’s husband, Eze King, also said.
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Authorities said that Dwumfour served as pastor at a church, and she and Bynum were acquainted with each other from the place. A manhunt was launched in the wake of Dwumfour’s murder, and Bynum was ultimately arrested in Virginia after four months.
“15 rounds at point blank range through the driver’s side window, a completely defenseless woman who had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide because she was seatbelted in her car,” Prosecutor Tzvi Dolinger said.
In the wake of her killing, authorities linked Bynum to the crime through surveillance footage, as he was captured fleeing the scene. Records obtained from the suspect’s phone also showed he traveled to New Jersey from Virginia at the time Dwumfour was killed, Middlesex County Prosecutor, Yolanda Ciccone, said at the time.
Dwumfour was elected as a Sayreville councilwoman in 2021. Outside politics, the deceased Republican Party member worked as a business analyst and part-time emergency medical technician, ABC News reported. She was also a leader at her local church.
Speaking to reporters after the murder, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said Dwumfour was the state’s first incumbent official in recent memory to be fatally shot.
READ ALSO: New York-based Ghanaian couple accused of fatally beating 5-year-old son sentenced
