Seven Florida cops have been placed on leave after their sheriff labeled the handling of a domestic violence case as “p*** poor.”
Mary Gingles, her father David Ponzer and neighbor Andrew Ferrin were all shot dead earlier this month, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said, while Gingles’s four-year-old daughter was kidnapped. Now, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said seven officers “fell short on” the case after receiving multiple calls from Gingles, who told them her husband was taking “steps” to murder her and was waiting “for the opportune time.”
“We fell short on this one response in terms of how some of the patrol personnel had documented certain facts related to calls going back to December,” Tony told reporters at a Wednesday press conference.
"Basically, we had a chance to save your loved one’s life and we failed,” Tony added.
Now, Mary’s husband Nathan Gingles has been arrested on several charges, including murder, kidnapping and child abuse.
On February 16, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office responded to shooting reports in Tamarac. There, they found Mary Gingles’s father Ponzer, 64, dead from a gunshot wound on her back patio.
Then, while searching Ferrin’s neighboring home, police also found him and Gingles had been fatally shot.
Investigators believe Gingles ran to Ferrin’s home to escape the attack, but her husband followed her there. Ferrin was an "innocent and unsuspecting resident,” according to court documents reviewed by NBC News.
Police also discovered Mary Gingles’s four-year-old daughter Seraphine had been taken from the home by Nathan Gingles. Police issued a statewide Amber Alert and found her just hours later “safe and unharmed” in Nathan Gingles’s car.
The four-year-old then told investigators her father shot her mother “a hundred” times, NBC News reports.
Gingles filed her first domestic violence injunction against her husband a year ago — while seeking a divorce — before filing a second one in December, NBC News reports.
“With Nathan’s violent history, his flagrant disregard for rules or laws, and his telling our daughter that he is going to kill me, I am fearful for my life...” Mary wrote in the December court petition, reviewed by the Miami Herald. “He has already taken steps to prepare to murder me, but is waiting for the opportune time.”
She also made at least two calls about domestic violence, with the first one coming in October.
"It’s clear that we probably could have done more in that element and that’s what we’re looking at," Tony said of the October call.
Mary Gingles made the second call in December, telling the responding deputy she was afraid her husband would kill her.
Tony said deputies could have pursued arresting Nathan after that — but did not.
"This is just a matter of what I’ve seen of p***-poor performance, complacency, and people not doing their due diligence," Tony said. He branded it: "bull**** work."
The seven officers on leave are: Michael Paparella; Travis Allen; Devoune Williams; Ilany Ceballos; Brittney King; Joseph Sasso; and Daniel Munoz.
The Independent was unable to identify Nathan Gingles’s attorney for comment.
