By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
On Friday, Florida’s Commission on Ethics is to consider a proposed settlement with Broward Sheriff Gregory “Dr.” Tony that would quell its unpleasant and embarrassing previous findings about him, like failing to disclose he’d killed someone, with minimal punishment.
In advance of the meeting, the commission laid out in its upcoming agenda what appears to be the most comprehensive set of facts to emerge so far. Nothing new that’s all that important today, yet something startling nonetheless: voices from Tony’s past.
The voices are those of panicky neighborhood witnesses who called 911 after hearing or seeing Tony gun down Hector “Chino” Rodriguez on a Philadelphia street outside Tony’s home in a poor neighborhood on May 3, 1993. At the time, Tony was 14. Rodriguez was 18.
Tony has insisted it was self-defense. Witness statements obtained by Philadelphia police detectives and later provided to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents tell a different story: That Tony used his father’s .32 caliber, Rossi revolver to shoot Rodriguez multiple times, including two slugs in the back of the head execution style after Rodriguez hurled an insult.
Police 911 recordings are all too familiar to anyone who watches the TV evening news. The frantic, scratchy voices of witnesses to violent crime who beg for a cop, an ambulance, for help. The backdrop is always fear.
The calls made to Philadelphia police nearly 32 years ago are not unlike calls made to Tony’s BSO shortly after 6 a.m. this Feb. 16. The anxious Tamarac callers were neighbors who heard the commotion that arose when Nathan Gingles allegedly shot and killed his father-in-law, David Ponzer, then hunted down and killed his estranged wife, Mary Gingles, as well as the neighbor who had taken her in, Andrew Ferrin.
VOICES IN PHILLY, VOICES IN TAMARAC
The difference is that frightened Philadelphia callers were prompted to call 911 by Tony’s decision to kill. Here, Tony’s deputies responded to the horrific scene that Tony has said happened because of BSO’s multiple failures over five months to protect Mary Gingles. whose position in mortal danger had been made clear to BSO in police reports and court restraining orders.
At a Feb. 19 press conference, Tony took official responsibility for the tragedy while also pointing the finger at everyone in his Tamarac district for BSO’s repeated failings. “So to the public, to the community, to those mothers and women out there who think that we’re going to drop the ball and this is a consistent pattern, know this, when we rectify this situation, I’m going to send the fear of God amongst this entire agency to make damn sure we don’t do this again because this, this death is on my watch. So my watch, I’m the sheriff of this county, I’m responsible,” he said.
Tony added, “This investigation will include every single administrator from the cap and the district commander all the way down. No one is going to get a pass on this and if anyone falls short, they will not survive this.”
“It’s very difficult because I hold these people close to my heart when they die. I read every report, I look at every single tragedy, and I’m a human being like everyone else in this room. And when I know we could have done better and we didn’t do better – and this wasn’t a matter of not [being] properly funded or all these other things as historically has just failed this community – this isn’t it. This is just individuals not doing what they’re supposed to do…I’m basically saying we had a chance to save your loved one’s life and we failed,” he said.
Perhaps Tony, members of his BSO command staff and especially the eight current members of the Florida ethics commission would be interested in hearing the voices of those scared people who called the Philadelphia police in 1993 for help after Tony shot and killed Hector Rodriguez? If so, click here…
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