Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony angrily announced Wednesday that seven deputies and detectives were being placed on administrative leave after reviewing their investigative actions in the case of a Lauderhill man who for months had threatened to kill his wife before being charged with her violent death and that of two others over the weekend.
“We failed,” Tony told reporters Wednesday at a news conference.
“This is just individuals not doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said of BSO investigators. “Whether it be complacency, not taking a greater interest and not doing their due diligence to make sure that they’re documenting everything in an accurate manner.”
Tony’s actions stem from BSO’s handling of a long-running domestic dispute between Mary Gingles, 34, and her estranged husband, Nathan Gingles, 43. He has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, violation of a domestic violence injunction and interference with custody. BSO said over the weekend he shot and killed Mary Gingles, her father-in-law and a neighbor.
Mary Gingles, according to Broward court records, feared her husband for more than a year and had sought a divorce. She had gotten a Broward judge to issue a domestic violence restraining order against him last year and more recently on Dec. 30. She wrote in her latest court petition that her husband’s “violent history, his flagrant disregard for rules or laws, and his telling our daughter that he is going to kill me” left her “fearful for my life.”
Nathan Gingles, said Tony, could have been arrested in December when a BSO deputy interviewed the man’s wife for more than 30 minutes.
“There was enough there where we could have potentially pursued probable cause affidavit so we can arrest them and take them off the street, and that didn't happen,” Tony told reporters.
Tony said he wants to assure Broward residents that BSO would conduct a full investigation of the agency’s investigative practices in the months leading up to the triple homicide.
“I want to make sure this community continues to trust us and know that when we get this stuff wrong, people are going to be held accountable,” said Tony.
Nathan Gingles, say BSO, shot and killed his wife, Mary Gingles; his father-in-law, David Ponzer, 64, and Andrew Ferrin, 34, who lived in the same neighborhood as Ponzer during a shooting rampage over the weekend.
BSO reported that about 6 a.m. Sunday they were notified of a shooting in the 9700 block of North Grand Duke Circle in Tamarac. When BSO deputies and Tamarac Fire Rescue responded, they found Ponzer on the back patio of his home. He was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound.
The Gingles’ four-year-old daughter, Seraphine, was reportedly taken from the scene by her father, Nathan Gingles, according to BSO, who issued a statewide Amber Alert around 10 a.m. BSO reported finding the car the father was driving in North Lauderdale, where they found the little girl “safe and unharmed.” BSO then took Nathan Gingles into custody. He’s in the Broward County Main Jail.
In their search for other shooting victims, BSO authorities said they located the body of Mary Gingles inside a home at 5888 North Plum Bay Parkway in Tamarac. She had apparently dashed to the home to escape her husband. They also found the body of Andrew Ferrin inside the same home. Both were dead, victims of gunshot wounds.
The BSO Dive Team searched a nearby canal and found a firearm they believe was used in the triple homicide.
