Days after Mary Catherine Gingles was hunted down and shot to death by her estranged husband, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony vowed to “send the fear of God” to his deputies for a cascade of failures that led to the death of her, her father and an innocent neighbor on a quiet Sunday morning in Tamarac.
Tony fired eight deputies, including a sergeant he branded “absolutely a coward” for failing to order his team to immediately respond when the first 911 calls reported gunfire in the Plum Bay community. Instead, deputies lingered outside the suburban neighborhood where children play in parks and parents stroll on the sidewalks — a decision that would cost lives, Tony said.
Now, a year after Mary, 34, her father, David Ponzer, 64, and neighbor Andrew Ferrin, 36, whose home Mary sought refuge as Nathan Gingles, dressed in black, chased her down with a semiautomatic handgun equipped with a silencer, were gunned down on the morning of Feb. 16, those fired deputies have a chance to get their jobs back. The Gingles’ 4-year-old daughter, Seraphine, witnessed the murders, pleading with her father as she ran behind him barefoot, “Daddy, please don’t.”
The union representing the deputies are fighting for them to be reinstated, with retroactive back pay. Law enforcement unions negotiate collective bargaining agreements that often include arbitration clauses, allowing disciplined officers to challenge terminations or punishments and potentially secure reinstatement through a neutral third-party review…