A South Florida sheriff delivered a blistering rebuke of his own deputies this week, saying his department “failed” in its handling of a lengthy domestic violence case that he says culminated in a triple homicide.
Seven deputies have been placed on leave with pay, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office told CNN, as it investigates what Sheriff Gregory Tony described Wednesday as “shortcomings” leading to last weekend’s killings, in which a man is accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife, her father and a neighbor in the city of Tamarac.
Tony decried deputies’ “piss poor performance” and “bullsh*t work,” telling reporters they failed to take appropriate action after domestic violence calls related to the couple last year, and that the wife in December repeatedly told a deputy she was afraid her husband would kill her. Deputies “could have potentially pursued” an arrest of the man then, but didn’t, he said.
“There will be people that will lose their job over this,” Tony said in a Wednesday news conference, “and I’m focused on making sure they don’t win a damn arbitration, because that happens too repeatedly in this profession.”
Nathan Gingles, 43, is accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife Mary Gingles, 34; her father, David Ponzer, 64; and her neighbor Andrew Ferrin, 36, on Sunday morning at two homes in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, according to the sheriff’s office.
Nathan Gingles also is accused of kidnapping his and Mary’s 4-year-old daughter as he carried out the killings, authorities said. Following a statewide Amber Alert issued for the child, investigators found him and the girl late that morning outside a store in nearby North Lauderdale, and he was arrested, authorities said.
Nathan Gingles was being held on a slew of charges, including three counts of first-degree murder, a count of violating a domestic violence protection injunction, and a count of interference with lawful custody. He was being held without bond at the Broward County jail, online records showed Thursday.
His case has been provisionally appointed to the county’s public defender’s office, according to court records. CNN has sought comment from the public defender’s office, as well as from an attorney listed in court records as having represented in the case accusing him of domestic violence.
The deaths are “on my watch,” Tony told reporters at the news conference, adding, “We could have done better — and we didn’t.”
In a release, the Broward Deputy Sheriffs Association – the union representing Broward deputies – said “it is still very early in the investigation regarding the tragic murders in Tamarac,” and described the deputies’ leave “as a matter of internal protocol.”
“We believe in due process, and we await the facts which will be revealed by a full investigation,” union Vice President Dan Rakofsky said. “Furthermore, we are confident that the Broward Sheriff’s Office will be thorough and complete throughout the process.”
‘Dozens’ of calls preceded killings, sheriff says
Court records indicate Nathan and Mary Gingles were involved in a divorce case dating from February 2024, in addition to two domestic violence cases, one of which concluded in July.
Court records also indicate Mary Gingles had sought a restraining order against her estranged husband. These documents were marked confidential and were not fully accessible online Thursday. The office of the county clerk of courts did not respond to a request about the documents after initially directing CNN to the online records.
According to his arrest warrant in Sunday’s killings, deputies exploring one of the shooting scenes found a court order prohibiting Nathan Gingles from contacting two people – someone whose name is redacted, and “their daughter.”
More should have been done considering a history of reports relating to allegations of domestic violence involving the couple, the sheriff said Wednesday.
“Dozens of calls for services” involving the couple had been made “over a span of a couple years,” said Tony, who characterized the calls as “one conflict after the next, whether the husband’s reporting the wife, now she’s reporting him, and so on.”
Deputies failed to take appropriate action specifically after domestic violence calls in October and December, Tony said, though he provided few details about what prompted those calls and how deputies responded.
“From my assessment, this is really just a shortcoming of performance,” Tony said about an October call, “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, so that when it does arrive in the investigator’s hand, they have a comprehensive report that allows them to make better judgment and decisions.”
Tony pointed specifically to a December incident. In that situation, Tony said, Mary Gingles repeatedly expressed fears for her life to a responding deputy.
“The totality of times that she had made (statements) related to ‘I fear he’s going to kill me’ … there was enough there that we could’ve potentially pursued a probable cause affidavit so we could arrest him and take him off the street,” Tony said. “And that didn’t happen.”
The case was eventually escalated to a district detective, but critical time had already been lost due to “a multitude of shortcomings,” Tony said.
“We fell short on this one,” Tony said.
4-year-old girl witnessed killings, warrant says
On Sunday, Broward County sheriff’s deputies went to a Tamarac home just after 6 a.m., according to an arrest warrant for Nathan Gingles, after a 911 caller reported hearing the sound of gunfire and a woman crying and screaming, “Oh my God!” from a nearby home. The caller then heard two more gunshots, the warrant says.
Deputies found Ponzer – Mary Gingles’ father – lying in the home’s backyard with a gunshot wound, according to the warrant and a news release from the sheriff’s office. He was declared dead at the scene, the warrant says. Inside the home, deputies found gun lockboxes that appeared to be unlocked, as well as the restraining order with Nathan Gingles’ name.
As deputies searched the area, one noticed a man wearing all black clothing, walking with a child. The information was broadcast over police radio, but deputies continued their search, not yet knowing what had unfolded, the warrant says.
Outside, a neighbor told deputies he was woken up around 6:07 a.m. to the “sound of loud banging on his front door,” the warrant says. In surveillance footage captured outside his home, he saw a woman – his neighbor – running to the door and knocking on it frantically, followed seconds later by a person wearing all black with what appeared to be a firearm and a small girl following behind. The woman then fled.
Deputies found Mary Gingles dead inside another home, where they also located Ferrin, according to the news release. Investigators believe Mary Gingles fled into the home and was followed by Nathan Gingles, authorities allege he shot his wife and the “innocent and unsuspecting resident,” according to the warrant.
A background search of Nathan Gingles led deputies to an apartment he was renting in nearby Lauderhill, where he had registered a vehicle with a Texas license plate, the warrant says. That vehicle was later located in the parking lot of a Walmart, where Gingles was found with his daughter and taken into custody, according to the warrant.
Detectives determined the 4-year-old girl witnessed the killings and saw her father dispose of his gun in a black backpack, which he threw into a trashcan, the warrant says. The weapon and backpack have not been recovered, according to the warrant. The girl also said her father told her they were going to visit her cousin in Texas, and that she would never see her mother or grandfather again, the document says.
Nathan Gingles had previously surrendered firearms and ammunition as part of the terms ordered by the restraining order, the warrant says, citing a February 2024 incident report. The weapons were later returned to him, per the warrant.
Asked why the seized firearms were returned, Tony said deputies were legally required to do so due to court proceedings. Part of the current investigation will focus on whether the guns should have been taken a second time, he said, following additional domestic violence calls to police.
He apologized to the victims’ families, saying the preliminary findings about authorities’ failures “only hurts them even more” after their loss.
“Because I’m basically saying we had a chance to save your loved one’s life and we failed,” the sheriff said.
CNN’s Chenelle Woody contributed to this report.