The Broward Sheriff's Office has placed seven additional deputies on leave following a triple murder in Tamarac earlier this year, bringing the total number of employees under scrutiny to 13.

One probationary employee has already been terminated.

The internal affairs investigation is focused on how BSO responded to numerous domestic violence calls from Mary Gingles, who was murdered in February along with her father, David Ponzer and neighbor, Andrew Ferrin. Gingles' estranged husband, Nathan, is accused in the killings.

Pattern of inaction

Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has publicly condemned his agency's failure to act on what he called repeated warning signs. Gingles had called BSO for help dozens of times prior to her death, according to Tony.

"There will be people who will lose their job over this and I'm focused on making sure that they don't win a damn arbitration," Tony said.

Among the disciplinary concerns are allegations of breach of confidence and neglect of duty.

"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," Tony added, "when we rectify this situation, I'm going to send the fear of God among this entire agency to make damn sure we don't do this again."

Calls for accountability

Frank Ponzer, whose brother David was among the victims, said he supports the ongoing investigation.

"I would say they're doing a good job of investigating and finding out how these failures happened," he said.

Still, Ponzer wants to see real consequences.

"Obviously, there were some shortcomings here," he said. "The investigations need to continue to happen until all these people are exposed."

The BSO internal affairs investigation remains ongoing.

• South Florida
• Murder
• Broward County