A N.J. councilwoman was shot dead in her car and the FBI is now investigating. Here’s what we know.
A New Jersey councilwoman was shot useless exterior her dwelling on Wednesday — and the FBI is now investigating her demise.
Police discovered Eunice Dwumfour, a 30-year-old Republican member of the Sayreville Borough Council, in her white Nissan SUV with a number of gunshot wounds, near her townhome, simply earlier than 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. She was pronounced useless on the scene.
Right here’s what we learn about Dwumfour’s killing.
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Circumstances surrounding the incident
Neighbors advised a neighborhood CBS Information station that they heard two units of 4 loud gunshots. After Dwumfour was shot, her automobile rolled down the hill earlier than crashing into parked vehicles, along with her physique slumped over the wheel.
“They regarded exterior they usually noticed somebody working into the woods, which ends up in the parkway,” a neighbor mentioned.
A resident advised Fox Information Digital that police arrived on the scene inside minutes and “have been making an attempt to interrupt the window of the automobile. Clearly it was locked.”
Witnesses additionally mentioned they noticed an individual sporting a hoodie run between two buildings and bounce a fence.
Police in Sayreville, a city in Middlesex County with round 45,000 residents, searched the wooded space close to the quiet advanced the place Dwumfour lived, in addition to the Backyard State Parkway close by.
Throughout a Thursday press convention, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy mentioned that he couldn’t keep in mind the final elected official within the state who was shot and killed, and referred to as Dwumfour’s demise a “stunning, stunning improvement.”
Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone, who’s working with the Sayreville police to analyze, advised ABC Information the councilwoman’s political beliefs don’t but seem like a motive within the slaying.
The FBI is now investigating Dwumfour’s demise
Throughout a press convention for an unrelated incident on Friday, James Dennehy, the FBI particular agent accountable for the Newark Discipline Workplace, mentioned the company is “conscious of that incident and we’re working with all of our companions with a view to discover out extra about that incident.”
Yahoo Information has reached out to the FBI for remark.
Detectives obtained Dwumfour’s cellphone from the scene. They advised ABC Information that they’re wanting on the private, skilled and non secular facets of her life of their probe.
Murphy added: “We’ll do something we are able to to trace down this assassin.”
Dwumfour was thought-about a rising star within the Republican Celebration
Dwumfour, a Republican, was elected to the council in 2021 after defeating an incumbent Democrat to start a three-year time period. She additionally served as a member of the Sayreville Human Relations Fee. She had simply completed her first time period.
New Jersey Republican Celebration Chairman Bob Hugin expressed his “horror and deepest sorrow on the mindless violence” in a statement.
“We are going to keep in mind Eunice for her steadfast dedication to the group, in addition to her deep and abiding Christian religion. We have now the utmost confidence that legislation enforcement will carry the perpetrators of this heartbreaking tragedy to justice. God Bless Councilwoman Dwumfour and her household.”
In a press release offered to Yahoo Information, Murphy mentioned Dwumfour’s public service profession was “simply starting.”
“I’m surprised by the information of Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour’s homicide final night in an act of gun violence. Her profession of public service was simply starting, and by all accounts she had already constructed a status as a dedicated member of the Borough Council who took her duty with the utmost diligence and seriousness. I ship my condolences to Councilwoman Dwumfour’s household and associates, her governing physique colleagues, and your complete Sayreville group. Sayreville is a proud, tight-knit, and protected group and I do know that it’ll come collectively, because it at all times has, in widespread function,” Murphy mentioned.
Dwumfour was a mom and a church chief
Dwumfour was a Newark native and was residing in Sayreville as the one mom of a 12-year-old daughter. She had only in the near past married a pastor, with marriage ceremony ceremonies in August in New Jersey and in November in Abuja, Nigeria. She had a background in data expertise and was a part-time EMT. In keeping with her LinkedIn web page, the councilwoman additionally labored because the director of church buildings for a world ministry, Champions Royal Meeting.
Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick remembered Dwumfour for her deep religion.
“Past her dedication to our group, I can share that she was a girl of deep religion and labored arduous to combine her robust Christian beliefs into her each day life as an individual and a group chief,” Kilpatrick mentioned.
Karen Bailey Bebert, a neighborhood GOP chairwoman who additionally served as Dwumfour’s marketing campaign supervisor, described Dwumfour as being energetic and having a smile that “lit up the room.”
“She was a 30-year-old girl,” Bebert mentioned to the Related Press. “To have this occur in such a tragic approach, I imply, our hearts are simply damaged and everyone needs a solution. So we’re ready with bated breath.”
