The March 2024 attack unfolded while the couple’s 7-year-old twins sat in the backseat of their mother’s station wagon.

BOULDER, Colo. — A Colorado man was sentenced to 41 years in prison after admitting he shot his ex-wife in a Longmont driveway while their 7-year-old twins sat behind her in the car.

Boulder County District Court Judge Thomas F. Mulvahill imposed the sentence Monday after Brandon David Allen, 48, reached a plea agreement in the case. Allen pleaded guilty to attempted murder, vehicular eluding, child abuse, criminal mischief and a crime of violence sentence enhancer. The case closed a criminal proceeding that began with gunfire outside a home on Goshawk Drive and ended with a police chase near Lyons. Prosecutors called the shooting an act of domestic violence and said the sentence reflected the danger to Allen’s ex-wife, Nicki Douglass-Johansen, and to the two children who watched from the backseat.

The shooting happened March 20, 2024, outside Douglass-Johansen’s Longmont home, where she lived with the children and her mother. According to an arrest affidavit, the children were in the backseat of their mother’s station wagon and were about to go to the store when Allen opened fire. One child told investigators their father shot their mother twice, then said he and his sister ducked because they did not know whether Allen would shoot them too. After Allen drove away, the children rolled down a window and shouted for someone to call 911. The affidavit said the children described their father as evil and wondered whether their mother would remember them after being shot. Douglass-Johansen survived wounds to her neck and thigh.

Allen left the driveway after the shooting, but authorities said he soon called 911 while police were searching for him. “I think I just killed my ex-wife,” Allen told a dispatcher, according to the affidavit. He also told the dispatcher he had fired a gun at her. Douglass-Johansen’s mother told police she was upstairs when she heard two shots. She looked out and saw Allen standing near the rear passenger side of a green vehicle with a gun in his hand, according to the affidavit. He then walked to his own vehicle and left. The affidavit said Douglass-Johansen’s mother told officers the children had lived at the Longmont home with their mother for six years and that Allen had not lived there.

The search for Allen moved from Longmont toward Highway 36 near Lyons, where officers found him in his vehicle. Authorities said he drove away as officers planned to arrest him, starting a pursuit through northern Boulder County. Officers tried to stop him with a pit maneuver, but he kept driving and began firing shots from his vehicle, according to the affidavit. Police later used another stopping tactic that led to his vehicle coming to a halt. Allen got out but did not follow commands, the affidavit said. A police dog bit him before officers took him into custody. Investigators said officers found two empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, two empty shooters and four butane cans in his vehicle. They also said Allen slurred his words, had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol.

The shooting left Douglass-Johansen with injuries that required weeks of hospital care and multiple surgeries. She later said doctors believed a bullet entered through the left side of her neck, damaged one of her right carotid arteries, hit the right side of her neck and struck her jaw before shattering. She underwent open heart surgery and reconstructive jaw surgery, according to accounts of her recovery. She also suffered two strokes, permanent blindness in her right eye, damage to a vocal cord, numbness and nerve damage in her jaw, and continuing problems from bullet fragments. She was released from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus on April 3, 2024, after about two weeks in medical care, most of it in a trauma unit.

Court records showed a protection order was in place before the shooting and that Allen was not allowed to possess a weapon. The original case included accusations tied to attempted first-degree murder, child abuse, driving under the influence, prohibited use of a weapon and violation of the protection order. In January 2025, Allen pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He later reached a plea agreement in February 2026 and admitted guilt to a narrower set of charges. At sentencing, prosecutors sought the maximum term allowed under that agreement. Mulvahill gave Allen 32 years for attempted murder, three years for vehicular eluding and six years for criminal mischief, with the prison terms to be served one after another.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said Douglass-Johansen and the children helped make the prosecution possible. “This horrific, brutal shooting was an outrageous act of domestic violence,” Dougherty said after sentencing. “The victim is lucky to be alive.” He said Allen deserved the long sentence because of his actions and what Dougherty called a lack of genuine remorse. In court, Mulvahill spoke directly to Allen’s claim that he cared about his children. “Everything that you say you did for your children was obliterated the moment you shot their mother,” the judge said. Allen apologized in court and said, “I did become the monster.”

The sentence also included 240 days in jail, 10 years of probation and credit for 775 days already served. If Allen is released from prison, he faces five years of parole. The case now moves from Boulder County District Court to the Colorado Department of Corrections, where Allen is expected to serve the prison term ordered Monday.

Author note: Last updated May 25, 2026.