‘Incredible human being’: Community remembers slain Coral Springs vice mayor

The community came together Friday night to remember Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer, who police say was murdered by her husband inside their home earlier this week.

There was a sea of orange and green outside City Hall as a salute to Metayer’s alma mater, Florida A&M University. They were also her favorite colors.

Days after police said they found her shot to death inside her home, the South Florida community put their arms around Metayer’s family during a candlelight vigil Friday night, including Corryn Freeman.

The husband of Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was taken into custody after she was found dead Wednesday morning, police said. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports

“I’m not shocked that these people are here because anyone who she met loved her,” Freeman said. “Everyone she met she touched.”

Freeman said she and Metayer built a friendship over the last several years.

“Nancy was the sweetest person that you would ever meet,” she said.

Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook wore a ribbon on his shirt Friday night that said “forever in our hearts.”

“She was an incredible human being and maybe the brightest light in Coral Springs, and a good friend,” Brook said.

According to Coral Springs Police, Stephen Bowen shot and killed his wife inside their home on Wednesday. Bowen told a relative he shot his wife because he “couldn’t take it anymore,” an arrest report said, before he was arrested in Plantation.

“I find myself immensely angry at the injustice that someone who was a model citizen could have something like this happen to her,” Freeman said.

Reshida Gibson met Metayer at Florida A&M. They were in the same sorority, and she said Metayer was her big sister.

“She kind of took me under her wing; she guided me with such grace,” Gibson said. “All of us sorority sisters have gotten together, praying and leaning on one another, trying to get through this.”