Tammy Flowers, 36, a Black woman, was killed on June 4, 2014 in Goose Creek, South Carolina, when gunfire erupted at her home on Elmwood Place in the middle of an otherwise ordinary weekday afternoon. Deputies and the county coroner arrived to a scene that was already beyond saving: she was found dead near the front door, and two teenage girls inside the home had also been shot and rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
Neighbors described the moments leading up to the shooting as sudden and terrifying. One neighbor said Tammy had just pulled into her driveway after work and that Darryl Flowers, her estranged husband, was already at the house. The neighbor recalled Tammy seeming startled at the doorway, trying to run, and being grabbed; when the neighbor tried to step in, the door slammed shut. Screams followed. The neighbor said he went back again, opened the door, and saw the gun raised and being cocked, leaving him with nothing to do but run and call 911—then the shots echoed through the home, six or seven by his count.
Investigators identified Darryl Flowers as the suspect and said the attack also struck two teenagers who were living in the home—Tammy’s nieces—who, at the time, were in the process of being adopted by her after their mother died. Authorities said Tammy and Darryl Flowers were estranged and he was not living at the residence; a neighbor also said the separation had been recent and that Darryl’s presence around the cul-de-sac had become unsettling, with his vehicle seen nearby day after day as if he were watching the house.
After the shooting, deputies launched a manhunt that quickly stretched beyond South Carolina. Authorities said the suspect’s vehicle was located off Amy Drive in Goose Creek, and they described a sequence in which he sought help from a friend, got a ride toward Lincolnville, then stole a friend’s SUV and fled in the direction of the interstate. By the next morning, Maryland State Police spotted a vehicle with South Carolina tags reported stolen and possibly tied to a homicide traveling north on Interstate 95 near Aberdeen, Maryland. When troopers attempted a stop, he refused, leading to a brief pursuit that ended only after devices were used to deflate the tires; as officers approached, authorities said he cut his throat and wrist with a box cutter and was taken for treatment under guard at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
He was later extradited back to Berkeley County, where authorities listed charges that included murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, and a weapon charge tied to committing a violent crime; at a bond hearing, a judge denied bond. In September 2016, prosecutors announced the case had reached its end without a trial when Darryl Edward Flowers pleaded guilty to murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of kidnapping, receiving a 40-year sentence for murder and 30 years for each of the remaining charges. South Carolina Department of Corrections records for him reflect those convictions and sentences as active.
