April 2 (UPI) — A vice mayor of a southeastern Florida city was fatally shot in what police are calling a domestic incident, according to officials and authorities who said the community is grieving.<\/p>\n
“We are heartbroken to share that Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen has died,” the police department for Coral Springs said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n “She was more than a public servant, she was a light in our community. Her leadership was grounded in compassion, strength and an unwavering commitment to others. Her impact on Coral Springs is immeasurable, and her loss leaves a void in our hearts.”<\/p>\n Police officers initiated an investigation into Metayer’s well-being at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with officers arriving at her residence in the 800 block of Northwest 127th Avenue to locate the body of a deceased black woman identified as Bowen, Coral Springs Police Chief Brad Mock said Wednesday evening in a press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This is being investigated as a domestic violence incident,” he said, adding that Bowen’s husband, Steven Bowen, was taken into custody.<\/p>\n Little information about the incident was made public.<\/p>\n Bowen was the first Black and Haitian American woman to be elected commissioner of Coral Springs, according to her official biography<\/a>, which states she was first elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2024, before being appointed to serve as vice mayor of the city by her fellow commissioners.<\/p>\n The Metayer family issued a statement<\/a> on her Instagram account announcing her death.<\/p>\n “She believed in bringing people together, listening to those she served and working tirelessly to create positive change in her community,” the family said.<\/p>\n “To us, she was a source of strength, wisdom and love — someone who always put others before herself.”<\/p>\n Coral Springs Commissioner Josh Simmons reiterated Bowen’s commitment to the public, stating that no matter what was said about her or the commission she still cared, rolled up her sleeves and “went to every event that she could go to because she truly cared about people and making sure people had a relationship with their elected officials.”<\/p>\n “My soul is heavy. My heart is broken. We’re just normal people and to have to go home and deal with things, that’s what we do. We come back out every single day and we work for the people,” he said.<\/p>\n “Our commission is incomplete. Our commission is incomplete.”<\/p>\n Coral Springs is a suburban city of about 140,000 people<\/a> in northwestern Broward County, located just northwest of Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n