Nicki Douglass-Johansen lived through gunshot wounds, major surgeries and lasting injuries after being shot in front of her children.
BOULDER, Colo. — Nicki Douglass-Johansen survived being shot in the neck and thigh in her Longmont driveway, then became the central witness in a case that sent her ex-husband to prison for 41 years.
Brandon David Allen, 48, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to attempted murder and other crimes stemming from the March 20, 2024, attack. Boulder County prosecutors said Allen shot Douglass-Johansen while she sat in the driver’s seat of her station wagon with the couple’s 7-year-old twins in the backseat. The children were not struck. Douglass-Johansen survived injuries that doctors and family later described as life-threatening. Her recovery, the children’s statements and Allen’s own words to police shaped the case from the first 911 call through sentencing in Boulder County District Court.
The injuries began with two shots outside the family’s home on Goshawk Drive. Douglass-Johansen later said doctors believed one bullet entered through the left side of her neck, cut one of her right carotid arteries, crossed to the right side of her neck and moved until it hit her jaw and shattered. She also had a gunshot wound to her thigh. Her medical care included more than eight hours of open heart surgery and more than five hours of reconstructive jaw surgery. She spent about two weeks at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and was released April 3, 2024. Much of that stay was in trauma care, and she was intubated on and off during treatment.
The wounds did not end when she left the hospital. Douglass-Johansen later described two strokes, permanent blindness in her right eye, severe damage to a right vocal cord that left her voice hoarse, and nerve damage and numbness in her jaw. She also had bullet fragments in her neck and a fragment in her lip that was expected to require surgery. Scar tissue caused narrowing in a carotid artery, a condition she continued to monitor. She said medical workers told her many people do not survive the type of injuries she suffered. At the same time, she was trying to return to life as a single mother to twins who had seen the shooting from feet away.
Investigators said the children were in the backseat and ready to go to the store with their mother when Allen fired. One child told police that their father shot their mother twice and that he and his sister ducked down because they did not know whether Allen would shoot them too. After Allen left, the children rolled down a window and shouted for someone to call 911. According to an arrest affidavit, they described Allen as evil and wondered whether their mother would remember them. Their grandmother, who was upstairs inside the home, heard the shots and looked outside. She saw Allen standing near the rear passenger side of the green vehicle with a gun, the affidavit said.
Allen left the driveway, but authorities said he soon called 911 and reported what he had done. “I think I just killed my ex-wife,” he told a dispatcher, according to the affidavit. He also said he had fired a gun at her. Officers found him along Highway 36 near Lyons, but the encounter turned into a pursuit. The affidavit said Allen drove away, officers attempted to stop him and he fired shots from his vehicle. Police eventually forced the vehicle to stop. Allen exited, did not obey commands and was bitten by a police dog before being arrested. Officers said they found empty beer cans, empty shooters and butane cans in the vehicle. They also reported that Allen had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol.
The case developed against a domestic violence backdrop. Court documents showed a protection order was in place, and Allen was prohibited from possessing a weapon at the time of the shooting. The original charges included attempted first-degree murder, child abuse, driving under the influence, prohibited use of a weapon and a protection order violation. In January 2025, Allen pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A plea agreement followed in February 2026. He later pleaded guilty to attempted murder, vehicular eluding, child abuse, criminal mischief and a violent crime sentence enhancer. The agreement set the possible punishment that Mulvahill later imposed at the top end.
At sentencing, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said the shooting nearly became a homicide. “This horrific, brutal shooting was an outrageous act of domestic violence,” Dougherty said. “The victim is lucky to be alive.” He credited Douglass-Johansen and the children for their courage and said Allen deserved the sentence because of his conduct and lack of genuine remorse. Mulvahill also focused on the children. The judge told Allen that everything he claimed to have done for them was destroyed the moment he shot their mother. Allen apologized and said he had become “the monster.” The court ordered the prison terms to run consecutively.
The final sentence included 32 years for attempted murder, three years for vehicular eluding and six years for criminal mischief, for a total of 41 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Allen also received 240 days in jail, 10 years of probation and credit for 775 days served. If released from prison, he will face five years of parole. For Douglass-Johansen, the court’s decision marked an end to the criminal case but not to the medical and emotional aftermath described in records and interviews. The surviving victim, the children and the courtroom record now stand as the lasting account of what happened in the driveway.
Author note: Last updated May 25, 2026.