Who wanted Nicki Lenway dead? That was the question police were asking on the evening of April 20, 2022. Around 7:30 pm, Lenway had pulled into the parking lot of the FamilyWise parenting center 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.
Nicole
Miraculously, Lenway survived, telling “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty, “I fell to the ground… And the shooter stands over me and keeps trying to shoot.” The mystery of who tried to kill Lenway unravels in “Who Wanted Nicki Lenway Dead?” A 30-minute encore airs Saturday, Nov. 22, at a special time — 10:30/9:30c — following the NWSL Championship on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
After shooting at Lenway — hitting her in the arm and neck — the shooter fled. Bleeding and struggling to breathe, Lenway called 911, but when the operator answered Nicki realized she couldn’t speak.
Nicki Lenway was no stranger to violence. The 33-year-old worked crime scenes for the Minneapolis Police. But she never imagined that she would find herself on the other side of an investigation. “I knew this could happen… but I didn’t want to believe it would,” she tells Moriarty.
Across the street from where Lenway was shot, Emilie Clancy was in her car at a red light and had seen the whole thing. “There was, um, a person who ran at another person. … I heard two bangs and that other person fell,” she said. When the light turned green, Clancy pulled up next to Lenway. Clancy took over the 911 call and had Lenway get into the front seat of her car. She took off her jacket and put it on Lenway’s neck to try to help stop the bleeding.
As the two women waited for help to arrive, they shared a powerful moment that Clancy will never forget. “I just looked her in the eye… And I said, ‘Nikki, we’ve got this.’ We have this. Just stay with me…” I just wanted her to know she wasn’t alone in this… And if that was the only thing I could give this poor girl, that – that would mean something to me.” Within minutes, first responders arrived, and Lenway was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition.
The Police started their investigation on who carried out the brazen attack by looking at the area for clues. Saru learned that Lenway was at FamilyWise to pick up her son who had a scheduled visit with his father, her ex-boyfriend, Tim Amacher. Officers spoke with Amacher in the lobby of FamilyWise and found that he was inside the building with his son when the shooting occurred.
Surveillance cameras caught the shooter targeting Nicki Lenway. / Credit: Hennepin County District Court
The first major break in the case came when officers discovered he was there security footage by FamilyWise and two surrounding buildings. The first pictures showed Nicki arriving to pick up her son and someone dressed in all black with a mask on their face chasing her down from behind. Another camera, from a bench across the street, captured the dramatic moment in which shots were fired. The shooter could then be seen fleeing on foot and driving off in a black Dodge Ram truck. But the truck had no license plates, and police could not say who was behind the wheel.
The next day, the police were able to interview Lenway at the hospital. They asked if she had any idea who wanted to kill her. Without a second thought, she told them she was convinced Amacher was involved. Amacher was a well-liked local taekwondo instructor. To the police, it did not make sense that Amacher could have been the shooter. They knew that Amacher was inside Family Wise at the time of the shooting and could not have pulled the trigger.
Still, Lenway told police she and Amacher had a long, rocky history that included allegations of abuse — “One night they threw me against the wall holding my neck” — and a bitter custody battle over their son that eventually went to trial in the fall of 2020. When it was over, the judge awarded Lenway sole legal and physical custody. Tim was allowed only one supervised visit per week. For the police, it was a clear motive.
But what about Amacher’s alibi? Can the police connect him to the shooting? One of the detectives at the crime scene had asked Amacher what cars he had. Amacher told him he had 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 the Driver and Vehicle Services, he made a shocking discovery. Tim Amacher had another vehicle: a Black Dodge Ram truck, like the one the shooter was seen driving.
If it was Amacher’s truck, who was driving it? The police turned to the FBI for help, and agent Richard Fennern, a technology specialist, was assigned to the case. Amacher’s truck was a newer model and Fennern learned it had Wi-Fi, which, like a cell phone, creates a digital trail. “We can track it like we can a cellphone,” 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 in was in fact the same truck Tim Amacher was driving earlier. It was a huge break. But it still left the police with the same question – who was the masked person driving away from the scene after Nicki was shot?
Police questioned Amacher, and he told them that the only other person who had access to his truck was Colleen Larson. Larson was younger than Amacher — she had been a taekwondo student since she was a teenager. When she was 18, she moved in with the taekwondo master and their relationship would eventually become romantic. Neighbor Charlie Dettloff told Moriarty, “She used to call him Master … and in the end she became, you know, like a maid or servant to him.”
Police questioned Larson twice. The first time she denied any involvement, but during the second interview, which was recorded, she broke down and confessed: “I took the truck and drove there… and then I shot her.” Even though Larson admitted she pulled the trigger, she said the whole thing was Amacher’s idea.
INVESTIGATOR: So, I asked you, if you feel comfortable shooting Nicole for me?
COLLEEN LARSON: Yes.
INVESTIGATOR: Yes.
Larson told police that after the shooting she got rid of the black clothes she wore to hide her identity, but Amacher had fired the weapon.
COLLEEN LARSON: He just said he would 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 exactly, no.
Despite what Larson told police, Amacher denied any involvement before or after the shooting. Tim Amacher went on trial on November 3, 2022. He was convicted of attempted first degree murder and aiding and abetting his accomplice, Colleen Larson, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. A few days later, Larson pleaded guilty to attempted first degree premeditated murder. She was sentenced to 16 and a half years.
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