Monday marks three months since a New Jersey councilwoman was shot and killed right outside her home, but her family is still in the dark with no answers from investigators.
Sayreville City Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was killed outside her home in February by a gunman who ambushed her in her car. The case remains unsolved and the brutal attack has sent shockwaves throughout the community.
What happened that fateful night is still a mystery, and the unanswered questions are raising serious concerns in Sayreville.
In an email to the state attorney general, Sayreville Council President Christian Onuoha cited widespread discomfort with the outcome of the investigation to date.
"I am requesting that you take over the investigation into the killing of Councilwoman Dwumfour," the council head wrote.
For months now, the investigation has been in the hands of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, which has yet to release any information about the status of its work. The office has even declined to confirm if a man seen in surveillance video obtained exclusively by News 4 immediately after the shooting could be the suspect making an escape, or simply a resident running from the gunfire.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
The councilwoman's family has held a news conference and, more recently, sat down privately with the Associated Press to express their frustration. Her daughter described what she heard just outside her window the night of the shooting."
"We're waiting for my mom to look for a parking space, and then she was taking a lot of time so we started calling her over and over again, but it wouldn't pick up. And then we heard gunshots and we started calling the police," Nicole Teliano told the AP.
"It's so painful. It's so painful. Every day by day, we think about her. We cry, I cry every day by day," her husband, Peter Ezechukwu, said.
In the last week, Sayreville's mayor announced her decision not to run for re-election, in part because of racial threats she's received regarding her friend and colleague, Dwumfour.
She said Dwumfour was a personal friend of hers. That's why she cites a hate letter sent to her following Dwumfour's death as a reason she is dropping out of public service, at least for now.
"I’m calling this my pause. I have to pause because there’s nothing more important than my children and than my family," Kilpatrick told NBC New York.
Regarding a state takeover of the probe, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said "respectfully, no comment will be made regarding an ongoing investigation." There's been no word from the attorney general.
