TAMARAC, Fla. – When details about a man fatally shooting Mary Gingles, her father, and her neighbor surfaced in Broward County, it felt like a nightmarish déjà vu for Kate Ranta.
Ranta, then 40, and Gingles, 34, were both divorcing abusive husbands who had served in the U.S. military. Both were home with their fathers and their 4-year-old children.
Ranta, an activist, said the tragedy in Tamarac was a sign that nearly 13 years after she survived the shooting in Coral Springs more still needs to be done to save lives.
“When I first saw it, my mouth was on the floor,” Ranta said about the news. “The same thing happened to another family in basically the same area, and they died. What is it going to take?”
When Ranta learned that Gingles’ daughter, Seraphine, had asked her father, Nathan Gingles, 34, to stop, she thought about her son’s plea to his father, retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Thomas Maffei, then 45.
Ranta said Maffei was holding a gun and threatening her on Nov. 2, 2012, in Coral Springs, when Maffei knelt next to her son who then said, “Don’t do it daddy!
“Don’t shoot mommy!”
Maffei fired four times.
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs, pleading with him,” Ranta said.
Maffei shot her twice, and her father, Robert Ranta, twice -- and both survived. Prosecutors charged Maffei with two counts of first-degree attempted murder. After a brief trial in 2017, a judge sentenced Maffei to 60 years in prison.
Kate Ranta, an advocate for domestic violence victims nationwide, said she knows the tragedy in Tamarac could have been prevented.
“I did make it,” Kate Ranta said. “I didn’t die and I will tell the story as much as I can.”
Gill Freeman, a retired judge, agrees with her. She said she has seen protections for domestic violence evolve and improve, but more needs to be done.
“The system entirely failed the family. I don’t think the system is broken, but I think there’s room for improvement and we are constantly working to make it better.”
Nathan Gingles had a record of restraining orders and the record showed law enforcement never seized his weapons.
There are always those people who a restraining order will not stop,” Freeman said also adding, “There has to be follow-up: ‘Is everything ok? Are you safe? Have there been violations?’”
Nathan Gingles, a retired U.S. Army signal corps officer from 2011 to 2019, also shot and killed Andrew Ferrin, a 36-year-old neighbor who responded to the victims' calls for help.
Court records show Nathan Gingles had three cases pending on Monday afternoon. One was in family court and the other two were for domestic violence after service and capital homicide.
Nathan Gingles faced eight charges in the capital homicide case: Three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse, kidnapping, interference with custody, and violation of an injunction related to domestic violence.
He was awaiting trial at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Maffei was at the state’s South Bay Correctional Facility on Monday afternoon near Belle Glade and his release wasn’t until 2072.
Part 2 of this investigation airs at 11 p.m., Monday, on Local 10 News. Local 10 News Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this report.