‘System of failures.’ Had BSO seized weapons, triple murders may have been prevented: expert
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Amber Alert unravels triple murder in Tamarac
Nathan Alan Gingles is accused of abducting his 4-year-daughter and killing her mother, grandfather and a neighbor in Tamarac.
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Just weeks after Mary Catherine Gingles got a temporary restraining order from a judge to keep her estranged husband with a history of domestic violence away from her, she, her father and her neighbor were brutally murdered last Sunday morning in a quiet Tamarac neighborhood.
Broward Circuit Court Judge Lauren Alperstein had also ordered Nathan Alan Gingles, 43, an Army vet, to surrender his firearms, ammunition and any concealed weapons permits to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, when she signed the order on Dec. 30.
A copy of the judge’s order was forwarded to BSO, which was required to serve the injunction upon Nathan “as soon as possible,” the order says. But BSO did not seize his weapons, one of the key points where BSO “fell short,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said Wednesday, announcing the suspension of seven deputies connected to the case.
Nathan, who has been charged in the killings, was heavily armed. He owned 20 various firearms, “most of which have silencers, and are semi-automatic, handguns and more sophisticated firearms, all of which the Mother believes ... [are] to kill the Mother with, as what else would he need silencers for,’’ according to a divorce petition Mary filed in Broward circuit court in February 2024, seeking an end to their six-year marriage.
Both Mary and Nathan were captains in the U.S. Army; Nathan was deployed in Afghanistan for a year.
Early last Sunday morning, Mary, 34, her father, 64-year-old David Ponzer, and her neighbor, 36-year-old Andrew Ferrin, were found shot to death in two homes in the 5800 block of North Plum Bay Parkway in Tamarac, a suburban community of landscaped lawns and children playing. Nathan, deputies say, killed Ponzer while he drank his morning coffee on a backyard patio.
Mary, 34, ran for her life and banged on several neighbors’ doors, pleading for help, before she ended up inside Ferrin’s home, where she and Ferrin were gunned down. Mary and Nathan’s 4-year-old daughter Seraphine told investigators she witnessed the killings.
The little girl said her mother and grandfather were “defeated,” according to Nathan’s arrest warrant. She said she wanted her mother to “defeat” her father, but ultimately her dad won.
READ MORE: Abducted 4-year-old told investigators how Broward triple murder unfolded, records show
Nathan is jailed without bond on a slew of charges, including murder, kidnapping and child abuse.
‘A system of failures’
“What happened here is just a system of failures,” said Tanya Schardt, senior counsel and director of state and federal policy for Brady United, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on reducing gun violence.
One person in the U.S. was shot to death by an intimate partner every 12 hours between 2018 and 2022, according to data analyzed by Brady. A male abuser having direct access to a firearm increases the chances of fatal violence by more than 1,000%.
READ MORE: Abducted 4-year-old told investigators how Broward triple murder unfolded, records show
Mary’s struggles with Nathan were known to law enforcement and the judicial system, records show. Tony, in Wednesday’s news conference, said there was a “robust amount” of calls to Mary’s home.
“I don’t want the public to lose faith,” Tony said. “...When we rectify this situation I’m going to send the fear of God amongst this entire agency.”
READ MORE: ‘We fell short:’ Seven Broward Sheriff’s deputies suspended after Tamarac triple murder
But had law enforcement acted sooner, the killing spree may not have occurred, the Brady executive said.
The murders were “easily preventable” and there was “failure on so many levels,” Schardt said. About 20% of murders in Florida are linked to domestic violence, according to data cited in a Department of Children and Families report.
“Locally, Florida has a lot of work to do…to make sure things like this don’t happen again,” she said.
Florida law doesn’t automatically bar someone who has a restraining order against them from having firearms, Schardt said. And when a judge orders a person to surrender their weapons — as a Broward judge ordered Nathan Gingles to do in December — there may be loopholes that can be exploited, such as buying firearms through the internet without a background check, she said.
“…[But] even when there’s a court order to seize the weapons, it’s not done,” Schardt said.
BSO did not seize Gingles’ weapons after the judge’s order.
Concluded Schardt: “The system needs to be more robust to ensure when someone [like Mary] is doing everything to protect themselves, their child and their family that they are protected.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM.
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