Fugitive Sought in 1992 Miami Shooting Eludes Police, FBI

A fugitive wanted in connection with a fatal shootout in a Miami nightclub four years ago appears to have eluded FBI agents and Long Beach police who thought they had cornered him in his apartment early Wednesday.

Investigators searched four apartments in the 3400 block of Andy Street in Long Beach before concluding that 25-year-old Carl Anthony Flowers had escaped.

After staking out his apartment most of Tuesday, FBI agents called Long Beach police about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday to help them contact Flowers. The city’s SWAT team was sent in a short time later.

“When our SWAT team went in, he was gone,” said Cpl. Harry Erickson. But he added, “there’s a possibility that he’s in the area.”

Long Beach police are still on the lookout for the Jamaican national, and he was classified Wednesday as armed and dangerous, Erickson said.

FBI investigators suspect that Flowers was one of the gunmen who shot 20 people, four of whom died, in a Miami nightclub in 1992. Long Beach police said he has been living on Andy Street since at least April.

Although agents reported hearing noises coming from his apartment, they were never able to speak to him directly. Officers evacuated and searched adjacent apartments before tossing “flash-bang” grenades and tear gas into Flowers’ apartment.

He apparently escaped with his girlfriend, Cheryl Hinds, who is in her early 20s.