Who wanted Nicky Lenway dead? This is exactly the question the police asked on the evening of April 20, 2022. Around 7:30 p.m., Lenway pulled into the FamilyWise Parent Center parking lot to pick up her 5-year-old son, Callahan. She was halfway between her car and the door when she was ambushed from behind and shot several times at point-blank range.
Miraculously, Lenway survived, telling 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty: “I fell to the ground… And the shooter is standing over me and continues to try to shoot.” The mystery of who tried to kill Lenway has been solved. “Who wanted Nicki Lenway dead?” The 30-minute encore will air on Saturday, November 22 at a special time slot of 10:30/9:30 following the NWSL Championship on CBS and broadcast on Paramount+.
After shooting Lenway, wounding her in the arm and neck, the shooter fled. Leaving bleeding and struggling to breathe, Lenway called 911, but when the operator answered, Nicki realized she couldn't speak.
Niki Lenway was no stranger to violence. The 33-year-old man worked crime scenes for the Minneapolis police. But she never imagined that she would end up on the other side of the investigation. “I knew it could happen… but I didn’t want to believe it,” she tells Moriarty.
Across the street from where Lenway was shot, Emily Clancy I was in my car at a red light and witnessed all of this. “There was, uh, a person who ran up to another person… I heard two thumps and the person fell down,” she said. When the light turned green, Clancy pulled up next to Lenway. Clancy answered the 911 call and asked Lenway to sit in the front seat of her car. She took off her jacket and draped it around Lenway's neck, trying to stop the bleeding.
While the two women waited for help to arrive, they experienced a powerful moment that Clancy will never forget. “I just looked into her eyes… And I said, 'Nikki, we've got this. We have it. Just stay with me…” I just wanted her to know that she’s not alone in this… And if that was the only thing I could give to this poor girl, like that, that would mean something to me.” Within minutes, first responders arrived and Lenway was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
Police began their investigation into who carried out the brazen attack by combing the area for evidence. They learned Lenway was at FamilyWise to pick up her son, who was scheduled to visit his father, her ex-boyfriend Tim Amacher. Officers spoke with Amacher in the FamilyWise lobby and learned he was inside the building with his son when the shooting occurred.
Hennepin County District Court 
The first big break in the case came when officers discovered that CCTV footage from FamilyWise and two surrounding buildings. The first images showed Nicki arriving to collect her son and someone dressed all in black with a face mask attacking her from behind. Another camera installed in a bank across the street captured the dramatic moment of the gunfire. The shooter could then be seen fleeing on foot and driving away in a black Dodge Ram truck. But the truck had no license plates and police were unable to determine who was driving.
The next day, police were able to interview Lenway at the hospital. They asked if she had any idea who would want to kill her. Without thinking twice, she told them that she was convinced of Amacher's involvement. Amacher was a popular local taekwondo instructor. It didn't make sense to police that Amacher could be the shooter. They knew Amacher was inside Family Wise at the time of the shooting and could not have pulled the trigger.
However, Lenway told police she and Amacher had a long and rocky history that included allegations of abuse — “He threw me against a wall one night while holding me by the neck” — and a bitter custody battle over their son that eventually went to trial in the fall of 2020. When it ended, a judge awarded Lenway sole legal and physical custody. Tim was only allowed one supervised visit per week. This was an obvious motive to the police.
What about Amacher's alibi? Can police link him to the shooting? One of the detectives at the crime scene asked Amacher what cars he owned. Amacher told him he owned the Jeep he was driving and a Dodge Challenger sedan. But the detective didn't just take his word for it, and when he checked with Driver and Vehicle Services, he made a shocking discovery. Tim Amacher had another vehicle: a Black Dodge Ram truck identical to the one the shooter was seen driving away in.
If it was an Amacher truck, who was driving it? The police turned to the FBI for help, and agent Richard Fennern, a technology specialist, was assigned to investigate the case. Amacher's truck was a newer model, and Fennern learned it had Wi-Fi., just like a mobile phone creates a digital footprint. “We could track it just like a cell phone,” Fennern said.
Using data from Tim's truck and his cell phone records from earlier in the day before the shooting, Fennern concluded that the black Dodge Ram truck the shooter drove off in was actually the same truck Tim Amacher had driven earlier. It was a huge break. But the police still had the same question: who was the masked man who drove him away from the scene after he shot Nicky?
Police interviewed Amacher and he told them the only person who had access to his truck was Colleen Larson. Larson was younger than Amacher—she had studied taekwondo with him since she was a teenager. When she was 18, she moved in with a taekwondo master, and over time their relationship became romantic. Neighbor Charlie Dettloff told Moriarty: “She called him Master… and ended up becoming something of a maid or servant to him.”
Police interviewed Larson twice. The first time she denied any involvement, but during the second interview, which was recorded, she broke down and admitted: “I took the truck and drove there … and then I shot her.” Although Larson admitted to pulling the trigger, she said it was all Amacher's idea.
INVESTIGATOR: So he asked you, if you felt comfortable, would you shoot Nicole for me??
COLLEEN LARSON: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR: Yes.
Larson told police that after the shooting, she got rid of the black clothing she was wearing to hide her identity, but Amacher got rid of the gun.
COLLEEN LARSON: He just said he'd take care of it.
INVESTIGATOR: He just said he would take care of it. …So you have no idea what he did with the gun?
COLLEEN LARSON: Not really, no.
Despite what Larson told police, Amacher denied any involvement in the shooting before or after it. Tim Amacher is scheduled to appear in court on November 3, 2022. He was found guilty of premeditated attempted murder and aiding and abetting his accomplice Colleen Larson and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Days later, Larson pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder. She was sentenced to 16 and a half years in prison.
