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Arts festival, dirty dining & more: Catch up on top Coral Springs stories of week

By Edited by Mike Garbett. Story produced with AI assistance
Catch up on the stories that made headlines across Coral Springs this week.
Catch up on the stories that made headlines across Coral Springs this week. Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com

From a vice mayor vacancy debate to a death warrant signing, a police pursuit lawsuit and more, it was a busy week of news in Coral Springs.

Here’s a roundup of the top stories you might have missed:

  • Coral Springs commissioners discussed filling the late Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen’s vacant seat at a retreat and agreed to explore appointing a former commissioner or mayor until a November election. No vice mayor appointment will be made until after the Nov. 3 municipal election.
  • Three organizations emerged as finalists in the city’s selection process for its proposed travel soccer program. The top three will present to the evaluation committee on April 28 at City Hall, with a final pick going to the City Commission on May 6.
  • Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Richard Knight, 47, convicted of fatally stabbing Odessia Stephens and her 4-year-old daughter Hanessia Mullings in Coral Springs in 2000. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on May 21.
  • Coral Springs was Broward County’s most competitive city for single-family home inventory in the first quarter of 2026, with a median supply of 2.6 months and a median of just 25 days to contract.
  • The family of 6-year-old Harlow Tran, killed during a 2024 Coral Springs police pursuit, filed a lawsuit alleging the officer’s pursuit of a driver with tinted windows was unreasonable given the risk to public safety.
  • Several Coral Springs restaurants scored poorly on April state inspections, with contamination and temperature issues continuing to put diners at risk of foodborne illness.
  • Rep. Jared Moskowitz introduced a House resolution to rename the NW 94th Avenue post office the “Nancy Metayer Post Office Building” in honor of the late vice mayor. The resolution has 12 co-sponsors.
  • New details emerged in an April 16 shooting at a Coral Springs strip mall, with police saying suspect Abdul Perez, 49, shot his former domestic partner until “apparently believing she was deceased.” She survived and is in stable condition.
  • The Rock-et Man sculpture at Whispering Woods Park was found destroyed in what police say appears to be vandalism. Key West artist Craig Berube-Gray will visit the site to assess damage and estimate repair costs.
  • The city is seeking bids for a new two-day arts and crafts festival planned for spring 2027 at Mullins Park, a year after the original Coral Springs Festival of the Arts ended its nearly two-decade run.
  • A 49-year-old Coral Springs man was arrested and charged with multiple felonies for allegedly creating pornographic AI images of a 17-year-old co-worker after she declined his sexual advances.
  • A 60-year-old e-moto rider died after colliding with a marked Coral Springs police vehicle on April 17. It is the second deadly crash involving an e-bike or e-moto in the city in eight months.
  • South Florida-based RK Centers, founded by Miami Heat minority owner Raanan Katz, purchased the Turtle Crossing shopping center on State Road 7 for $37.5 million — $5 million more than its last sale in 2021.

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.