The peaceful Tamarac neighborhood has mostly returned to normal.
Children walked and biked home from school Tuesday afternoon wearing their backpacks in the suburban, upper-middle class neighborhood. Couples watched TV in their garages with the doors open. Residents walked their dogs in the cool early evening air.
There were only a few signs of tragedy more than a week after three people were shot and killed inside two homes along North Plum Bay Parkway. Bouquets of flowers and candles left outside the homes where David Ponzer, Mary Gingles and Andrew Ferrin were killed. Evidence tape covering Mary Gingles’ door.
In the days since Nathan Gingles has been arrested and accused in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife Mary Gingles, 34, her father Ponzer, 64, and Ferrin, 36, a neighbor, the Broward Sheriff’s Office has faced scrutiny for its previous response to Mary Gingles’ calls for help.
Seven deputies have been placed on administrative leave as the Sheriff’s Office investigates what Sheriff Gregory Tony described as “shortcomings” by those personnel over the course of the last several months, up until the shootings on Feb. 16. Tony vowed that people would be fired.
The community gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil on Tuesday evening at Tamarac’s City Hall to honor the victims and raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence, which often goes unnoticed and unreported. In Mary Gingles’ case, the issues she said she had with her husband were reported multiple times and well documented, records show.
She used the court court system and law enforcement to try to protect herself and her daughter. She first filed a petition for a domestic violence injunction in February 2024 and a second one in December.
She called the Sheriff’s Office at least three different times in the months leading up to her death. Once after Nathan Gingles broke into her home, violating a no harmful contact order they agreed to in July, she wrote in the petition. Deputies didn’t arrive until an hour after she called, and Nathan Gingles was no long there. He had left a backpack in the garage, which she found two days later. Mary Gingles called the Sheriff’s Office again to make a report after finding it. It had duct tape, plastic restraints, PPE and other supplies and a note about “air embolisms” inside, the petition said.
In October, Mary Gingles found a tracker on her car. She called the Sheriff’s Office to file a report, but there was no follow up about it despite her multiple attempts, according to the petition.
Tony at a news conference last week said that his agency could have done more for Mary Gingles when she previously called for help and that they possibly could have arrested Nathan Gingles in December but did not.
‘We failed’: Seven BSO deputies placed on leave after Tamarac triple murder
A judge had ordered Gingles to surrender all of his firearms and ammunition to BSO in the Dec. 30 injunction and was prohibited from using any firearm. That injunction was extended until March.
Tony said that the Sheriff’s Office “did not collect any of those weapons” after the Dec. 30 injunction.
“But this is within this investigation. I want to know, why didn’t we do it?” Tony said. “Who was the detective assigned? Did they file the proper paperwork with the court? These are all the processes that we’re looking at.”
Nathan Gingles had previously surrendered his guns to BSO earlier after the first injunction in February 2024, according to a probable cause affidavit for his arrest, but Tony said at the news conference that the Sheriff’s Office was legally required to return them. The guns had been returned to Nathan Gingles by September.
Tony when asked at the news conference said he could not answer questions about the gun Gingles used in the shootings.
Outside city hall Tuesday night, framed photos of 4-year-old Seraphine Gingles, her mother, her grandfather and Ferrin were set up next to electronic candles and a vase of flowers. Sheriff’s Office personnel attended, along with therapy dogs, representatives from Tamarac Fire Rescue and other first responders, pastors from community churches, local politicians and residents.
Pastor Joel Tudman of the Faith Center in Sunrise prayed specifically for Seraphine “who will grow up without her parents.” The girl was kidnapped by her father after the shootings, prompting a statewide Amber alert. Deputies found her with Nathan Gingles leaving a Walmart in North Lauderdale and safely took her.
He prayed that “she is surrounded by loved ones and care takers that can help guide her into the next years of life so she that can be a productive citizen.”
Aralyn Bairan, 21, originally from Tamarac, said she flew from New York where she attends college to be at the vigil Tuesday night. She has been an outspoken critic of the city’s contracting with the Sheriff’s Office for services, as it has done for decades, rather than a local police agency.
“If you had to suspend seven people across different positions of power, that’s a systemic issue … It’s not personal against BSO. They just don’t have the community policing that Tamarac needs,” she said.
Multiple city commissioners during their speeches read out national hotline numbers for people struggling with domestic violence, mental health and veterans crisis support. Both Nathan and Mary Gingles had served in the U.S. Army, with Nathan Gingles serving in Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014.
Mayor Michelle J. Gomez after the vigil said Tony’s acknowledgment of the Sheriff’s Office’s issues in handling the case is the “first step” to ensure a similar situation doesn’t happen again.
“… Also hopefully people realize that BSO can only do so much. There are services out there. . . Sometimes our police can’t do it alone. It is a systematic failure, and there needs to be some changes all throughout our system,” she said.
This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.