Florida sheriff puts seven deputies on leave after domestic violence case turns deadly

Seven deputies at a South Florida sheriff’s office were placed on administrative leave after a “multitude of shortcomings” in a domestic violence case that led to three deaths, the sheriff said this past week, making scathing remarks about the deputies’ performance.

Sheriff Gregory Tony of Broward County acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday the mishandling of the case involving Mary Gingles of Tamarac, Florida, and Nathan Gingles, her estranged husband. Nathan Gingles, 43, is accused of fatally shooting her, as well as Mary Gingles’ father and a neighbor. He faces three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm, among other charges, according to a police report.

“We fell short on this one,” Tony said during the news conference. “There will be people that will lose their job over this,” he added.

Tony said the officers who were placed on leave included one lieutenant, two sergeants and four deputy officers. They were not identified.

The failures in this case date back to over a year ago, the sheriff said, pointing to several calls that were overlooked and could have prevented Nathan Gingles from keeping his firearms, which Tony said could have been impounded. But it appears there was no follow-up to the calls: A firearm believed to be used in the killings, which happened last Sunday, was recovered from a nearby canal, according to the police report.

In December, Mary Gingles also told a deputy that she was afraid her husband would kill her, providing details that suggested Nathan Gingles was a real threat, the sheriff said. But the deputy failed to act on the report, he said.

“There was enough there where we could have potentially pursued probable-cause affidavit so we can arrest him and take him off the street,” Tony said, “and that didn’t happen.”

The sheriff emphasized that the mishandling didn’t stem from shortcomings of policy, procedures, training or equipment. Instead, he attributed the failures to the deputies’ poor performance, “complacency and people not doing their due diligence.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office Professional Association, a police union, did not respond to requests for comment Saturday. It was not clear whether Nathan Gingles had legal representation.

On the day of the shootings, a statewide Amber Alert was issued for Mary Gingles’ 4-year-old daughter, who was later found with Nathan Gingles in nearby North Lauderdale, the police report said.

This is not the first time in recent years that the sheriff’s office in Broward County – one of the largest in Florida with about 2 million residents – has been roiled by controversy. In 2023, 17 of its deputies were charged with defrauding federal loan programs of nearly $500,000. The programs were intended to help businesses that were struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests and other high-profile police misconduct cases, police departments in the United States are under increasing pressure to not only uphold accountability, but to do so quickly and publicly to maintain their communities’ trust and confidence.

Wednesday’s news conference was a push for greater transparency, Tony said, adding that he wanted 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.”

“It’s very frustrating for me to have to stand here and witness this and know we’re an organization that has had our trials,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.