The Broward County sheriff placed seven deputies on paid administrative leave in February 2025 after a preliminary internal review found serious shortcomings in the agency's handling of domestic-violence reports involving Mary Gingles before she, her father and a neighbor were killed in Tamarac, Florida.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony publicly acknowledged that his agency had missed opportunities to intervene before the February 16 killings. The seven employees initially placed on leave included four deputies, two sergeants and one lieutenant.
Nathan Gingles, Mary Gingles' estranged husband, was arrested after the shootings. The Broward Sheriff's Office said he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm, violation of a domestic-violence injunction and interference with custody. Those charges were allegations, and the criminal case remained pending.
What happened in Tamarac
According to the sheriff's office, Broward County Regional Communications received reports of a shooting shortly after 6 a.m. on February 16, 2025. Deputies found 64-year-old David Ponzer, Mary Gingles' father, suffering from a gunshot wound at a Tamarac home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators later found Mary Gingles, 34, and neighbor Andrew Ferrin, 36, dead from gunshot wounds inside another nearby home. Authorities accused Nathan Gingles, then 43, of killing all three.
Mary and Nathan Gingles' 4-year-old daughter was reported missing after the shootings, prompting an Amber Alert. Broward Sheriff's Office deputies later located the child unharmed in North Lauderdale and took Nathan Gingles into custody.
The sheriff's dive team also recovered a firearm from a nearby canal that investigators said was believed to have been used in the killings.
Sheriff says deputies missed warning signs
In a February 19 news conference, Tony said a review of the agency's previous contacts with the family revealed failures extending back months before the killings.
"It is clear ... we fell short on this one," Tony said, according to contemporaneous reporting on the news conference. He said seven employees were being placed on administrative leave while the internal investigation continued.
The sheriff said deputies had responded to multiple incidents involving the couple and that investigators had opportunities to take stronger action. Among the issues identified was a December report in which Mary Gingles expressed fear that her estranged husband would kill her.
Tony said investigators had information that could potentially have supported a probable-cause affidavit and an arrest but failed to pursue that course. He also criticized the handling of efforts to remove firearms from Nathan Gingles.
At that stage, the sheriff characterized the problems as failures in employee performance rather than shortcomings in the agency's written policies, equipment or training. The administrative investigation had not yet reached its final conclusions when the first seven employees were placed on leave.
The investigation later found broader failures
The initial February disciplinary action was only the beginning of the sheriff's office review. On September 12, 2025, the Broward Sheriff's Office announced the results of its completed Internal Affairs investigation.
BSO said six deputies were relieved of duty and another 11 employees received discipline for their roles either in investigating domestic-violence reports made before the killings or in the tactical response on the morning of the shootings. Allegations against two other employees were not sustained. The captain who had overseen the Tamarac district had previously been demoted and was later dismissed after failing to meet probationary standards, while a probationary trainee deputy was also dismissed.
The final investigation found that Mary Gingles had contacted deputies repeatedly beginning in February 2024 about separate but related domestic-violence incidents. According to BSO, multiple deputies failed to properly investigate those reports.
The review also found a problem with the police response on February 16 itself. BSO said a supervising sergeant instructed responding deputies to gather at a rally point before confronting the reported shooting. The agency concluded that this violated its active-threat policy, which required deputies confronting an active threat to attempt an immediate tactical intervention to protect innocent people.
"We had multiple opportunities to protect Mary during the months preceding her death when she alerted us to the domestic violence she was experiencing," Tony said when the investigation was completed.
Criminal charges remain separate from the disciplinary findings
The sheriff's administrative findings concern the conduct of Broward Sheriff's Office employees. They do not determine Nathan Gingles' criminal guilt.
Prosecutors have pursued a criminal case against Gingles over the deaths of Mary Gingles, David Ponzer and Andrew Ferrin. He has pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty. Subsequent court proceedings continued through 2026.
In March 2026, a Broward County judge allowed attorneys who had been representing Gingles to withdraw from the case after they reported a serious breakdown in the attorney-client relationship. More recently, a judge scheduled his trial for July 2029, according to South Florida court reporting. He remains accused of the killings unless and until the charges are resolved through the court process.
Why the case drew scrutiny
The case raised questions not only about the response on the morning of the shootings but also about how law-enforcement agencies respond to repeated domestic-violence complaints, injunctions and warnings of escalating danger.
The Broward Sheriff's Office ultimately acknowledged that its personnel had multiple opportunities to act differently before the killings. Its later Internal Affairs findings went beyond the preliminary concerns identified immediately after the deaths and resulted in firings, additional discipline and further scrutiny of the agency's tactical response.
Tony said the public disclosure of those failures was necessary for accountability and maintaining community trust. The final administrative investigation established what BSO concluded its employees had done improperly; the separate criminal prosecution will determine Nathan Gingles' legal responsibility for the charges against him.
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