Hit-and-run driver who fatally struck teen remains on the loose

It’s been five years since Justin Flowers was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Fort Lauderdale and a reward is still being offered for information leading to the arrest of whoever was responsible for the death of the Pompano Beach teenager.

Broward Crime Stoppers this week re-circulated information about the case in the hopes of stirring up leads for investigators. Of the $5,000 reward being offered, a $2,000 donated portion will expire on Feb. 26, 2020 unless it is renewed, a Crime Stoppers representative said Wednesday.

Fort Lauderdale police have been looking for the driver of a dark-colored Jeep Cherokee that was westbound in the 2700 block of W. Broward Boulevard about 1:06 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2014. After striking Flowers, the vehicle, with tinted windows and a luggage rack, turned north on State Road 7 and disappeared, investigators said.

Flowers, 15, and his then-17-year-old brother Tyler had just left a party and were walking northbound to a Checkers drive-thru restaurant to get picked up by their parents, said their mother Diana Romero, at the time.

Tyler Flowers made it across Broward Boulevard but Justin Flowers stopped on the median before he was struck, police said. He was taken to Broward Health Medical Center where he later died.

Family and friends gathered at the intersection for a candlelight vigil that night.

A year later, the freshman was remembered at a ceremony in a memorial garden at J. P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs where he had been a student for about six months.

“This has to stop happening,” Romero said at the service about the hit-andrun crash that killed her son. “Not because it will bring my son back, but I don’t want this person to hurt another family.”

A stone at the memorial site includes a photo of Flowers and a dove and the words, “In loving memory of our student, classmate and friend. Always loved and never forgotten.”

Fort Lauderdale police said there are no new leads in the case but anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jill Hirsh at 954-828-5753 or Broward County Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.

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