Barely four months before he faces election, Broward County, Fla., Sheriff Gregory Tony faces allegations that his fatal shooting of a man in 1993 was concealed from the governor when he was appointed sheriff to fill a vacancy last year, the Miami Herald reports. The Florida Bulldog published a story Saturday detailing the shooting and raising questions about what happened.
Tony told the Herald he kept the shooting a secret when applying for a police job in Coral Springs, and later from the Florida governor’s office, because he was exonerated in juvenile court. Tony called it “clear self-defense” when, at age 14, he killed a man with his father’s revolver at his home in Philadelphia. Tony was appointed sheriff by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019 to replace elected Sheriff Scott Israel, whom DeSantis removed from office over the response to the mass shooting at the Parkland, Fla., school in 2017. Tony, a retired Coral Springs police sergeant, was seen as an unusual but inspired pick given his friendship with some of the Parkland families and his private security contracting business specializing in mass casualty responses.