AURORA, Colo. — The victim most seriously injured in a random shooting last month remains hospitalized, on a ventilator, and facing the uncertainty of not knowing whether she’ll regain full use of her legs.
Aryn Johnson, 49, was one of three people shot June 27 in what police believe was a random attack in an Aurora neighborhood.
Her mother, Sue Johnson, told 9NEWS Investigates that she suffered gunshot wounds to the stomach, hand and arm, and that bullet fragments caused multiple injuries.
“She's on a ventilator,” Sue Johnson said. “She's trying to learn how to breathe again. She doesn’t sleep well because she has nightmares. … As time goes by, we don't know if she's going to be able to have the use of her limbs, her bottom portion of her body. They say it could happen.”
Aryn Johnson suffered five gunshot wounds, but her teenage daughter was not hit. Sue Johnson believes Aryn shielded her daughter from the gunfire.
Sue Johnson said she has no idea what motivated the shooter.
“This tragic thing that this person did for no reason at all that we know of, you know – she's coming home from dinner, along with her daughter in the car,” Sue Johnson said. “The dinner that she had with my sister, her aunt, and this person walks up and starts firing a gun into the car.
“We don't know why that happened. And I want justice for her.”
The man accused of shooting Aryn Johnson and a mother and son a few blocks away, 35-year-old Austin Benson, has been charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder and numerous other crimes. He is scheduled to be back in court Aug. 7.
In July 2018, Douglas County prosecutors Benson with three counts of attempted murder, alleging that he drove along Rampart Range Road randomly shooting at people.
For more than five years, that case was active – but there was little progress after defense attorneys argued that the man was “incompetent,” the legal term for people who cannot understand court proceedings or assist in their own defense.
The case languished even after the man was accused of attacking nurses and security guards at a Parker hospital, after he was accused of violating the conditions of his bail and after he was accused of contempt of court.
Finally, after multiple doctors concluded he was not only incompetent but that his mental status could not be restored within the foreseeable future, a judge dismissed the case. The dismissal was required by state law once the judge concluded there was no hope of restoring the man’s competency any time soon.
That was Oct. 26, 2023 – five years and three months after the man was first arrested.
Sue Johnson questioned Thursday why he was free and able to possess a semi-automatic rifle.
“I have a gun, you know?” she said. “I have a pistol. I believe guns are tools. I get that. But that gun should be only used in a wartime situation. … Not in the driveway of a woman going coming home with her child after dinner.”
The shooting has upended family members lives in many ways.
Aryn Johnson’s daughter has moved in with relatives, which will require that she finish her senior year at a new high school. Sue Johnson and her husband put their Texas home on the market and are moving to the Denver area to help their daughter.
“We always planned to make the move back to Denver,” she said. “Unfortunately, the circumstances of our daughter’s being shot five times by a stranger none of us knows was the catalyst that is bringing us back home.”
The family is also facing mounting medical bills and has established a fund to help cover them.
“They’re going to be extraordinarily high,” Sue Johnson said.
Contact 9NEWS investigator Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.