Brandon Allen called 911 after the attack, then fled officers before his arrest near Lyons, authorities said.
BOULDER, Colo. — A Longmont shooting that wounded a mother in front of her children led police from a residential driveway to Highway 36 near Lyons before ending in the arrest of Brandon David Allen.
Allen, 48, was sentenced Monday to 41 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges tied to the March 20, 2024, attack on his ex-wife, Nicki Douglass-Johansen. The case began outside her home on Goshawk Drive, where prosecutors said Allen shot her as she sat in a station wagon with their 7-year-old twins in the backseat. It then became a moving police response across northern Boulder County. Authorities said Allen called 911, admitted firing at Douglass-Johansen, drove away from officers and fired shots from his vehicle before police forced him to stop.
The first scene was the driveway. Douglass-Johansen was in the driver’s seat, and the children were in the backseat. One child later told investigators they were about to go to the store with their mother when Allen opened fire. The child said Allen shot their mother twice. He and his sister got down in the seat because they did not know if Allen would shoot them too, according to an arrest affidavit. Their grandmother was upstairs inside the house when she heard two shots. She looked outside and saw Allen near the rear passenger side of the green vehicle with a gun in his hand, the affidavit said.
Allen left before officers arrived. The children, who were not physically injured, rolled down a window and shouted for someone to call 911. Their mother had been shot in the neck and thigh. The affidavit said the children called Allen evil and wondered aloud whether their mother would remember them after the shooting. The grandmother told police that Douglass-Johansen and the twins had lived at the home for six years and that Allen did not live there. Officers began canvassing the area for Allen. While they searched, Allen called 911 himself. “I think I just killed my ex-wife,” he told a dispatcher, according to the affidavit. He also said, “I fired a gun at her.”
Police located Allen’s vehicle on the side of Highway 36 near Lyons. As officers prepared to take him into custody, authorities said he drove away. Officers attempted a pit maneuver, but Allen continued driving. The affidavit said he then began firing shots out of his vehicle. Officers used another maneuver that caused the vehicle to stop. Allen got out but did not comply with commands, according to investigators. A police K9 bit him, and officers arrested him. The pursuit added charges beyond the attack in the driveway. Allen later pleaded guilty to vehicular eluding, one of the offenses that added three years to his final prison sentence.
Investigators described Allen’s condition and the items found in the vehicle after his arrest. The affidavit said officers located two empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, two empty shooters and four butane cans. Officers also wrote that Allen was slurring his words, had bloodshot eyes and smelled of an alcoholic beverage. After being arrested, Allen continued to say he had shot and killed Douglass-Johansen, though she was alive. He also claimed he had told people the shooting was going to happen and said he had heard voices, according to the affidavit. The case later included a not guilty by reason of insanity plea before ending in a plea agreement.
Douglass-Johansen’s survival became one of the defining facts of the case. She was rushed for medical care after the shooting and later spent about two weeks at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She underwent more than eight hours of open heart surgery and more than five hours of reconstructive jaw surgery. She later said doctors believed one bullet entered through the left side of her neck, damaged a carotid artery, crossed through her neck and shattered near her jaw. She also suffered two strokes, permanent blindness in her right eye, vocal cord damage, nerve damage, numbness and continuing problems related to bullet fragments and scar tissue.
The court case took more than two years to reach sentencing. Allen was initially charged with crimes that included attempted first-degree murder, vehicular eluding, child abuse, driving under the influence, prohibited use of a weapon and violation of a protection order. Court documents showed he was barred from possessing a weapon when the shooting happened. In January 2025, Allen pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In February 2026, he reached a plea deal. He ultimately pleaded guilty to attempted murder, vehicular eluding, child abuse, criminal mischief and a violent crime sentence enhancer. Boulder County District Court Judge Thomas F. Mulvahill sentenced him to the maximum prison term allowed under the agreement.
The sentence included 32 years for attempted murder, three years for vehicular eluding and six years for criminal mischief, all running one after another. Mulvahill also ordered 240 days in jail, 10 years of probation and credit for 775 days already served. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the shooting was an outrageous act of domestic violence and that Douglass-Johansen was lucky to be alive. He said her courage and the courage of her children helped bring the case to its outcome. In court, Mulvahill told Allen that his claim of acting for his children was erased when he shot their mother. Allen said he was sorry and said he became “the monster.”
Allen is expected to serve the sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections. If released, he will be under parole supervision for five years. The criminal case now stands closed after a chain of events that started with two shots in a driveway, moved through a 911 call and a highway pursuit, and ended with the longest prison term allowed by the plea agreement.
Author note: Last updated May 25, 2026.