Ashley Marie arrived for work that day about 10 minutes before her scheduled acupuncture session. She strolled through the sprawling warehouse, past the weight racks and the abstract paintings on the walls, to her private treatment room – a cramped space, maybe eight feet long. The door was shut but not locked.
As she turned the handle, Marie didn’t know there was a 6-foot-3, 275-pound man crouched in the corner of the room, hiding, with a loaded handgun at the ready.
She heard the crack of a single gunshot as soon as she opened the door.
“What the (expletive)?” Marie said. “You just shot me?”
The man was in his early 40s, wearing a black button-up shirt and dark jeans. He said he was sorry, but the Russian mafia was after him. He had to go.
In the chaotic seconds that followed, Marie’s boss rounded the corner and yelled for someone to call 911. Blood from the hole in Marie’s right shoulder began to pool on the concrete floor. And the man with the gun took off into the warehouse, headed toward a rear exit.
The first police officer on the scene found Marie sitting in the middle of the doorway, with her boss pressing a shirt against her wound. It was Justin, she told them.
Survivor of Justin Bannan shooting speaks out
Ashley Marie, an acupuncturist and former Colorado State basketball player, recounts being shot by retired NFL player Justin Bannan in 2019. Bannan has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to an attempted murder charge.
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