By Joseph Green-Bishop
Texas Metro Correspondent
The recent shooting death of New Jersey Councilwoman Eunice K. Dwumford has resonated with elected officials in North Texas who sent their condolences to her family, and who understand the pressures of the work she experienced as an elected official.
Ms. Dwumford, a member of the city council in Sayreville, New Jersey, was fatally shot February 1st as she sat in her car just outside of her suburban home. No arrests have been made in the incident, according to police investigators. Sayreville, a city of 45,000, is thirty minutes south of New York City. Ms. Dwumford was the mother of two children.
Desoto Mayor Rachel L. Proctor extended her condolences to the councilwoman’s family and to the people she served. “Her death is a terrible thing,” said Mayor Proctor who was elected to lead Desoto in 2021.
“As elected officials we serve our citizens to improve the quality of life in our communities. “We are all shocked by this act of violence committed against a woman who chose to use her voice to make her community a better place to live,” the mayor said of the recently married councilwoman who graduated from William Patterson university in New Jersey, and worked as a project manager.
The mayor’s remarks were echoed by Duncanville City Councilmember Patrick Harvey who called the death senseless. “No doubt she was trying to do good things,” said Councilmember Harvey who said that she grieved for the councilwoman’s family, and for residents of her city.
“In public service there are a lot of difficult decisions made. I am certain that she experienced that,” Councilmember Harvey said. “It is also very hard work. Surely, she experienced that as well.”
New Jersey Governor Phillip D. Murphy, a Democrat, said that he and other elected officials in New Jersey were stunned by the death of Councilwoman Dwumford who was a member of the Republican Party.
“She had built a reputation as a committed member of the council who took her responsibility with the utmost diligence and seriousness,” the governor said of Ms. Dwumford, who immigrated to America from her native Ghana when she was a small girl.
