Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen Killed in Shooting

Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was shot and killed Wednesday in what authorities are investigating as a domestic violence incident, the Coral Springs Police Department confirmed. Her husband, Stephen Bowen, fled the scene before police apprehended him in Plantation.

A friend of Metayer Bowen attempted to reach her by phone Wednesday and could not get through. The friend then called Stephen Bowen, and what the friend heard prompted an immediate call to police. Officers responded to the couple’s home, found Metayer Bowen dead, and immediately began searching for her husband.

Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputies tracked Bowen through license plate readers that caught his vehicle along SR 7/U.S. 441. He was taken into custody at a friend’s home in the Landmark Towers apartment complex in Plantation.

“The Coral Springs Police Department is currently working a death investigation involving the City of Coral Springs Vice Mayor, Nancy Metayer Bowen. It is still an active investigation,” Coral Springs Police Sgt. Francis Capre said.

The department held a press conference Wednesday evening at Coral Springs City Hall.

Metayer Bowen was 38 years old. Her death marks the loss of a public servant whose career traced a remarkable arc through environmental science, public health, community advocacy, and elected office.

A first-generation American of Haitian descent, she won her seat on the Coral Springs City Commission in 2020, becoming the first Black and Haitian American woman elected to that body. She ran for re-election four years later and won unopposed, a testament to the confidence her constituents placed in her leadership.

Her credentials were substantial. She earned a master’s degree in environmental health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Before entering local politics, she worked as a legal and outreach intern with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, then went on to intern with former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and the Obama administration.

She spent roughly two years working on Haiti relief efforts before joining Broward County government as a Program Manager with the county’s Junior Sustainability Stewards Program. In June 2017, she was elected to the Broward Soil and Water Conservation District, where she served for approximately two years. She also held several roles with the now-defunct Florida New Majority advocacy group, which focused on expanding political participation in communities of color.

During her tenure on the Coral Springs Commission, she served on the city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and Charter School Advisory Board. She also worked with the Broward County Climate Change Task Force and the Florida League of Cities’ Legislative Committee, extending her reach on environmental and policy issues well beyond Coral Springs city limits.

Inside the Democratic Party, Metayer Bowen had drawn attention as a rising figure. Her background bridged technical expertise in environmental science with a genuine passion for civic engagement, and her ability to connect with working-class and immigrant communities in Broward County gave her a profile that reached beyond local government circles.

South Florida has produced a generation of Black and Haitian American elected officials who broke barriers in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, and Metayer Bowen was squarely part of that story. Her 2020 election to the Coral Springs Commission represented a milestone for a city that had never before elected a Black woman to its governing body.

Domestic violence cuts across every demographic and every corner of South Florida. The circumstances of Metayer Bowen’s death, allegedly at the hands of her husband inside her own home, put a devastating public face on a crisis that advocates and law enforcement have long said demands more resources and more urgency.

The investigation remains active. No formal charges had been publicly announced as of Wednesday evening, though Stephen Bowen remained in custody. A full press conference was scheduled to provide additional details.

Metayer Bowen leaves behind a record of public service that started in the classroom, extended through environmental and public health work, and ended in elected office before she had reached 40. The Coral Springs community and the broader Broward County Democratic establishment will feel her absence for years.