Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony angrily announced Wednesday that seven deputies and detectives were being placed on administrative leave in connection with their investigative actions of a domestic case that ended with three deaths.
“We failed,” Tony told reporters at a news conference.
He said the case involved 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.
“This is just individuals not doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said of 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 told reporters that "we failed" when investigating the long-running domestic dispute between Mary Gingles, 34, and her estranged husband, Nathan Gingles, 43.
Nathan Gingles faces three counts of first-degree murder, violation of a domestic violence injunction and interference with custody. Investigators said he shot and killed his wife, father-in-law and a neighbor.
Mary Gingles, according to 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 on Dec. 30. She wrote in her latest 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 Gingle could have been arrested in December when a deputy interviewed Mary Gingles for more than 30 minutes, the sheriff said.
“There was enough there where we could have potentially pursued a probable cause affidavit so we can arrest [him] and take [him] off the street, and that didn't happen,” Tony said.
Tony said he wants to assure county residents that his office would conduct a full investigation of its actions during the months leading up to the slayings.
“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.
The sheriff's office said Nathan Gingles killed his wife, his father-in-law, David Ponzer, 64, and Ponzer's neighbor Andrew Ferrin, 34.
The sheriff's office reported that about 6 a.m. Sunday its was notified of a shooting in the 9700 block of N. Grand Duke Circle in Tamarac. When deputies and Tamarac Fire Rescue responded, they found Ponzer dead from a gunshot wound.
The Gingles’ 4-year-old daughter, Seraphine, was reportedly taken from the scene by her father,, and authorities issued a statewide Amber Alert around 10 a.m. Deputies reported finding the car Nathan Gingles was driving in North Lauderdale, where they found the girl “safe and unharmed” and arrested Nathan Gingles. He’s in the Broward County main Jail.
In their search for other shooting victims, authorities said they located the body of Mary Gingles inside a home at 5888 N, Plum Bay Parkway in Tamarac. She had apparently dashed to the home to escape her husband. They also found the body of Ferrin inside the same home. Both were fatally shot.
The sheriff's dive team searched a nearby canal and found a firearm they believe was used in the slayings.
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