Officer-involved shooting suspect forgiven by victim’s mother

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - On August 8th, Reno Police responded to a call reported only as a ‘disturbance’, but they arrived in a quiet upscale neighborhood in the southwest expecting trouble.

The person calling them said there was a man armed with a knife. They found a man, later identified as Brandon Douglas Allan, in the street in front of a home.

They ordered him to drop the knife, but he ignored them and began walking away. Officers say Allan then reached for a gun in his waistband and was shot. Investigators later discovered the gun was an air-soft pellet gun.

No one else was injured. Under the officer involved shooting protocol, Sparks police took over the investigation.

This was not Brandon Allan’s first confrontation with the law. He was released a year ago after serving a portion of two life sentences with the possibility of parole for the murder of his 24-year-old girlfriend, Kellie Parry, in 1999. The parole board made that decision after hearing from Parry’s mother.

Gayle Farley’s home still features a number of pictures of her daughter and a mention of her still brings a smile.

“We were very close. She was always fun. She had that quick wit.”

She worried when her daughter reunited with Allan three years after dating in high school. “I thought maybe he’d break her heart, something like that, and then when I saw him I wondered why is she even with this guy.”

Her concerns turned to horror October 22nd with a live tv news report of a shooting in Sun Valley.

“They panned his yard and I saw her car, and they said a woman’s been shot dead. Then they put the address and I knew what his address was.”

Kellie Parry had been shot in the back at point blank range with a .50 caliber handgun, a birthday gift, it turned out, from his mother.

His first trial ended in conviction and consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole after 40 years, but the verdict was overturned.

Again, she learned the news from a reporter.

“He said ‘well Brandon won his appeal’ and I said ‘what appeal?’ I had no idea. This was before the victim’s rights bill that you have to contact victims if there’s something like this going on.”

A second trial brought a second degree murder conviction and the possibility of parole after 20 years. She had looked into Allan’s record discovering a series of incidents involving firearms and threats, including firing a shotgun at the feet of his first wife. Allan had served a total of four hours for those incidents. She wanted to know why.

“They said that’s the way the law is written, and I said ‘Well, why don’t you change it? They said they won’t listen to us because we’re attorneys, but they’ll listen to you, and I said ‘Well, they’re going to.’”

And so, she lobbied to change the law. Threatening violence is now a felony even if it’s not carried out.

But she was not doing well.

“I was angry for a lot of years. It caused me to get a divorce. I lost my house. I ended up losing my business because I just wasn’t thinking right. I tried to commit suicide twice. I was in a coma once for a couple of days.”

When Allan became available for parole, she attended his hearings, determined to keep him in prison. But before the last hearing she realized the toll it was taking on her, and after praying on it, showed up to argue for his release.

“I prayed about it and said ‘God, please take this away from me. Handle this God, take this anger away.’ The next morning I got up and knew I had to speak for him. I lost some friends over that and a family member.”

Today, she says she’s still at peace with that decision. It was the right thing to do, but she’s relieved no one else was hurt while he was out.

“He needs to go away. He needs to stay put away because the way I feel, if he went out there and killed somebody, I’d feel so guilty because I was one of the ones who let him out. I spoke on his behalf.”

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