SAYREVILLE, N.J. (PIX11) — Sayreville, a central New Jersey community of 45,000 people, announced its plan for a public memorial service for Eunice Dwumfour, the councilmember who was fatally gunned down outside of her home Wednesday evening.
The service will be held next Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. at Epic Church International, the largest venue in the borough.
As the plans for the ceremony are being finalized, the investigation into the apparent targeted attack continues, with federal agents now joining county and borough investigators.
The attack on Dwumfour, 30, happened on the street outside of her apartment, near the corner of Check Avenue and Samuel Circle in an unincorporated area of Sayreville.
Flags are now at half-staff at borough hall on Main Street. There’s also purple and black mourning bunting hung over the building’s entrance in Dwumfour’s memory.
Glenn Skarzynski, the borough administrator and a friend of Dwumfour, spoke for the whole borough about the tragedy.
“Regardless of whether she was just a common resident or an elected official,” said the borough’s highest-ranking unelected official, “any time violence visits a community like this, it definitely has ripples across the entire town.”
He said that the tragedy is all the more disturbing because something like this is so rare there.
“The town’s rocked back on its heels,” said Skarzynski. “It’s just devastating news.”
Dwumfour, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, was parked alone in her SUV at 7:22 p.m. Wednesday when somebody fired into her vehicle.
Eyewitnesses said that they heard up to 13 gunshots and saw at least one man flee into a wooded area between the apartment complex and the Garden State Parkway.
Overnight on Wednesday and all day Thursday, investigators from the Sayreville Police Department and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office searched the wooded area and the street and parking lot around the luxury rental apartment complex where Dwumfour lived.
Dwumfour had been very involved in the Champions Royal Assembly church, a West African-American congregation in Newark. The state’s largest city is also where Dwumfour had spent most of her life until about five years ago when she moved to Sayreville. The rest of her family lives in Newark, minutes from the church, where they are in mourning.
Meanwhile, the investigation continues, with the FBI confirming on Thursday that its agents are assisting local and county investigators to find the killer or killers, as well as a motive. It’s part of a widespread effort to solve the case.
Skarzynski said that Sayreville’s mayor has received messages from Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and other elected officials. They haven’t yet confirmed, but are anticipated to be at Wednesday’s memorial service.
Meanwhile, Dwumfour’s family and her church are planning her funeral, a date for which has not yet been set.
