Broward residents will go to the polls in August to select a democrat candidate for sheriff. Their choice will be the current appointed sheriff, Gregory Tony or the ousted former sheriff, Scott Israel.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed Gregory Tony days after his inauguration in January 2019 as part of a campaign promise to get rid of Israel. DeSantis told voters he would replace elected Sheriff Scott Israel over the BSO’s response to the mass shooting at MSD high school in Parkland.

The republican governor says he is “no political ally” of Tony’s and was introduced to him by Andy Pollock who lost his daughter Meadow in the shooting.

Now, there are questions about Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony’s past that were kept secret when he was hired as a law enforcement officer. A new report indicates that he did not disclose that he had shot and killed a man when he was 14-years-old. Tony describes the shooting as a “clear self-defense case.”

Now Tony’s failure to disclose the shooting is raising questions about whether he should have been hired as a law enforcement officer in Coral Springs or appointed as sheriff of Broward County.

The revelation of the undisclosed self-defense shooting is also causing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who appointed him sheriff, to distance himself from Tony.

“It seems like he was in a very rough neighborhood and he was trying to defend his family but it’s not like he’s my sheriff,” he said. “I don’t even know the guy.”

DeSantis said Tony’s shooting did not come up in a background check, because he was exonerated in juvenile court.

He said at the time, he was just trying to “get someone who had done a good job” but that the decision is ultimately one the people of Broward County will make.

The sheriff is currently running against Israel, who was last elected to the position.

“That’s not something I’m going to be involved in,” DeSantis said.

Listen to interviews with both Gregory Tony and Scott Israel who are both running for Broward Sheriff in November 2020.