Gregory Tony’s rise — How a 1993 Philly homicide disappeared from the record
From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s Philadelphia saw a long succession of sensational murder cases and trials. Gary Heidnik’s trial in 1988 ended with his execution by lethal injection in 1999. The Center City jogger murder in 1995 saw the shocking acquittal of suspects Richard Wise and Herbert Haak in 1997.
Numerous other cases — the Lex Street massacre in 2000 and the Frankford slasher mystery of the late 1980s — strained the city’s safety and darkened its reputation in those days. But there was another murder at that time that seemed to slip through the cracks.
On May 3, 1993, 14-year-old Gregory Tony, who lived at 2828 N. Hutchinson Street, shot and killed a childhood friend, 18-year-old Hector “Chino” Rodriguez with a .32 chrome-plated six-shot Rossi revolver. The autopsy revealed that six bullet wounds had entered Rodriguez’s body: two in his chest, one in the upper left side of his back, two in the back of the head (execution-style) as well as a slight grazing wound near the base of the neck.
Tony was arrested on four counts: murder, possessing an instrument of crime, possession of an unlicensed firearm and carrying a firearm on a public street. Dan Christenten of the Florida Bulldog reported that the arrest affidavits were signed by Philadelphia Homicide Detective Michael J. Gross and approved by then Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Arlene Frisk.
Tony claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Rodriguez on that fateful day. Eyewitnesses said a woman on crack happened to walk past them on Hutchinson Street and Rodriguez joked and said to Tony, “There goes your mom.”
Other eyewitnesses stated that the person on crack passing in front of them was a man, with Rodriguez saying, “There go your uncles.”
It doesn’t take a lifelong Philadelphian to know that among certain rough and tough high school dropouts who tend to get in trouble with the police, seemingly silly but insipid “insults” about somebody’s mom can lead to broken teeth, split skulls, and sometimes even death.
Two eyewitnesses told police that Tony, who was in the eighth grade at the time, wanted to fight Rodriguez but Rodriguez refused since he was over 5’11” tall and weighed 262 pounds, while Tony was a mere 5’9” and weighed 140. Tony claims that Rodriguez pulled a gun and threatened to shoot him, and in order to save his life he ran into his house and returned with his father’s gun and shot Rodriguez six times.
“Hector, my brother and I were all in front of our house when we got into an argument,” Tony said in a statement. “At one point, he pulled his gun threatening us, saying he didn’t have any issues with shooting us there. I remember how scared I was when he chased me and my brother into our house, I ran to grab my father’s gun and fired it before Hector was able to shoot his gun.”
The eyewitnesses who saw Tony shoot Rodriguez could not corroborate the latter’s self defense story.
Since juvenile offenses in Pennsylvania are considered acts of delinquency rather than a crime, the case was by law veiled in absolute secrecy for the next 27 years.
Nevertheless, with the release of the eyewitness accounts about how and why Tony shot Rodriguez six times, not to mention the news about the autopsy findings and the recovery of the five of the slugs from Rodriguez’s body, the evidence against Tony seemed airtight.
Why Tony was found not guilty of killing Rodriguez remains a mystery. The lack of juvenile court records about the case makes the answer unknowable. The court file was ordered sealed by the judge, and no court records about it are public. Another factor is that the eyewitnesses never got a chance to testify at the trial because the Philly DA’s Office was supposed to contact the family when it came time to testify at Tony’s trial but that never happened. As a result, there were no eyewitnesses at the trial and Tony was not charged.
Fast forward to 2025 with Tony comfortably enshrined as the Sheriff of Broward County, Florida, a position he was appointed to in 2019 by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
Christenten maintains that Tony, a lifelong Democrat, not only misled DeSantis to secure the position but lied on his employment application to the City of Coral Springs Police Department by failing to report unpaid traffic citations, his checkered drug history (LSD) as well as his arrest for the murder of “Chino” in 1993.
Since his appointment by DeSantis, Tony, with his gym-buff body and piercing eyes, became known as “Teflon Tony.” Many of his critics like to say he began to exude an air of privilege as he posed for photos with his model-looking wife on social media while boasting of his time spent at swingers’ clubs. Photographs appeared of Tony and his wife laughing it up in bed with other singles and couples.
Earlier this year, the Florida Bulldog reported how Tony gave each member of his executive staff a posh gold ring with diamonds and emeralds. Tony claims the rings were not paid for with taxpayer money but would not say how he funded them.
Back in 2020, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association Union President Jeff Bell formally wrote a letter to Gov. DeSantis, asking that he remove Sheriff Tony.
West Palm CW34 reported that the letter came after a public protest was held calling for the sheriff’s firing.
“In the past month,” Bell wrote to DeSantis, “there have been numerous revelations about the character and sworn statements made by Gregory Tony that not only would have prevented him from being appointed sheriff, but would have prevented him from ever being a law enforcement for any agency in the state of Florida.”
Bell then went on to say how Sheriff Tony never reported to any law enforcement about his arrest for a homicide when he was fourteen. He also mentioned how Tony lied on several applications for law enforcement positions, made no mention of his past felony drug use of LSD, unpaid traffic tickets, his criminal record for writing bad checks, and his false claims of rank and certifications that he never held. Bell added that Tony also knowingly provided false information on Florida Department of Law Enforcement applications as recently as January 2020.
Bell concluded that, “Gregory Tony could not successfully submit an application for a law enforcement job in 2004 and still could not qualify to be hired as a police officer by today’s standards.”
Tony, however, weathered calls for his resignation but continued to ruffle feathers.
According to NBC 6 South Florida and the Sun Sentinel, in 2005, Tony “forgot” to mention the LSD when applying to Coral Springs PD. FDLE later said he lied multiple times on official documents about drug use, citations, and arrest history. Statute of limitations saved him from prosecution.
Known for his short temper — he once publicly cursed at deputies when they questioned his leadership at a police officer’s funeral — after Trump’s election he announced he would not cooperate with ICE in its crackdown on illegal immigration, stating that his only concern was crime.
In June 2025, Tony announced, “We’re not knocking on doors. We’re not snatching kids from daycare.”
This Philly boy who made good in south Florida despite his hidden homicide record became part of a breaking news story a couple of weeks ago. In front of television cameras, he attacked Deerfield Beach City Manager Rodney Brimlow, accusing him of playing politics and blocking a new contract Tony wanted to sign with the city for police and fire services.
Tony wasted no words:
“You tell me if I should go absolutely nuclear on this and destroy him [Brimlow] because I have the power of this office to do a lot of damage to individuals, but I have safeguarded and protected my personal temperament. Even when I was on the chopping ax and people attacked me, I kept my professional decorum, and I led this agency the right way.”
Brimlow took this as a threat on his life and filed a police report to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement alleging that Tony threatened him and he feared for his life, however the FDLE examined the evidence and concluded that no threat was ever made.
Once again, Tony survived what could have ended his career.
The former Philadelphian has also been courting the radical Muslim community. In May of this year he hosted and posed for photos with several radical Muslim clerics after he led a tour of the Broward County National Security Training Center. Among the men on tour was Imam-Sheik Ibrahim Dremali, a Muslim Brotherhood operative, and Rasheed Mahamad, Director of the Islamic Center of South Florida.
Dremali is a cleric who has called for the eradication of Israel’s Jews. In June 2025, he posted photos of bombed-out apartment buildings in Israel with the statement: “This destruction is not in Gaza, but this bombing is in Tel Aviv. O Allah, increase the bombing and destruction and take the lives of those in it.”
Who knows what Tony’s future holds, but with his track record it is unlikely that the future will not be without controversy.
Thom Nickels is a Philadelphia-based journalist/columnist and the 2005 recipient of the AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. He writes for City Journal, New York, and Frontpage Magazine. Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including “Literary Philadelphia” and ”From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia.” His latest is “Death in Philadelphia: The Murder of Kimberly Ernest.” He is currently at work on “The Last Romanian Princess and Her World Legacy,” about the life of Princess Ileana of Romania.
