Off-Duty Guard at Colorado ICE Jail Charged With Attempted Murder After Shooting a Protester

AURORA, Colo. — An employee of the private company that runs a Colorado immigration jail has been arrested and charged with attempted murder after authorities say he opened fire on demonstrators outside the facility, wounding a 21-year-old woman in the foot.

Brandon Booth, 42, a staffer at the GEO Group's Aurora ICE Processing Center, was booked into jail on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon, according to the Aurora Police Department. The shooting took place last Thursday amid a protest that had gathered outside the for-profit detention center.

Police said Booth and other employees had been unable to get into the facility for their work shifts because demonstrators were blocking access. According to the department's account, two women at the protest took photographs of the employees' cars and got into a verbal altercation with the workers before walking away. Booth then allegedly drew his personal firearm and fired a single shot in the women's direction, striking one of them, and left the scene before officers arrived.

The bullet hit Emma Landis, 21, in the heel, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment. Landis, who survived the wound, said afterward that the attack would not deter her, vowing to continue demonstrating against the detention center's operations. Her account, and video from the scene, helped police identify and arrest Booth in the days that followed.

The Aurora facility, operated under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has for years been a focal point of protests over the treatment of detainees and the expansion of immigration detention. The shooting has intensified scrutiny of the private-prison contractor and of the volatile confrontations that have flared outside such sites as demonstrations have grown more frequent.

GEO Group and federal immigration authorities faced immediate questions about the conduct of facility staff and whether employees are permitted to carry personal weapons to work. Local officials and immigrant-rights groups condemned the shooting, calling it an alarming escalation in tensions that have simmered for months around the Aurora complex, one of the largest immigration jails in the region.

As Booth awaits further court proceedings, the case has become a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement — and over the safety of the activists who increasingly gather at the gates of the country's detention centers. Prosecutors will now weigh the evidence against him, including witness accounts and any video, as they build toward a case that could carry years in prison if the attempted-murder charge holds.