ICE facility employee arrested in Colorado protest shooting

An employee of the company that operates an immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado, was arrested after police said he shot and wounded a woman who had participated in a protest outside the facility Thursday evening.

Aurora police identified the suspect as Brandon Booth, 42, an employee of GEO Group, which runs the Aurora ICE Processing Center at 3130 Oakland Street. Police said Booth was arrested in a vehicle on Nome Street, less than two blocks from the shooting scene, and that officers found a gun inside the vehicle.

The woman, whom police described as a protester, was shot in the lower body. Her injuries were described as non-life-threatening. She has not been publicly identified. A friend who was with her was not injured, The Guardian reported.

Police said the shooting unfolded as Booth and other employees waited in their vehicles because protesters had blocked access to the facility, preventing them from getting to their work shifts.

“Two women initiated a verbal confrontation and took pictures of the employees’ vehicles before walking away,” Aurora police said. “At that point, Booth retrieved his personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in their direction, striking one of the women on her lower body. Booth then got into his vehicle and drove out of the area before he was detained.”

Booth faces charges including assault and attempted second-degree murder, according to CBS News. The Guardian reported that he was booked on probable cause of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.

“We are aware that an off-duty Aurora ICE Processing Center employee was involved in a shooting incident,” a GEO Group spokesperson said in a statement. “This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called the shooting “a tragedy on all fronts” and said the department would review the case with transparency and integrity.

“We remain committed to ensuring an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review of this case,” Chamberlain said. “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society – violence is not.”

Various groups have protested outside the Aurora facility at different times this year, CBS News reported. It was not immediately clear what group, if any, the injured woman was affiliated with.

GEO Group is a $4 billion company that operates private immigration detention centers and state prisons across the United States, The Guardian reported. The company has multiple government contracts with the Department of Homeland Security for detention facilities, transportation services and immigrant-tracking programs. The Guardian also reported that former GEO Group executive David Venturella was named acting director of ICE in June.

The Aurora facility has drawn protests from immigrant advocates who have alleged detainees were mistreated, served inadequate food and lacked consistent access to air conditioning, according to The Guardian. Earlier this week, the facility reported a tuberculosis outbreak involving at least 12 detainees, The Guardian reported.

CBS News reported that the Aurora shooting followed two fatal shootings by ICE officers in the previous 10 days. On July 7, a 52-year-old Mexican man was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Houston while driving a work crew to a construction site. ICE later said the man was not the intended target of the immigration enforcement operation. On July 13, a 25-year-old Colombian man was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, while ICE officers were conducting surveillance on another person, according to CBS News. After the shootings, DHS briefly paused most ICE traffic stops, but CBS News reported that President Trump overturned that pause Wednesday.

Aurora police asked anyone with footage of the shooting or its aftermath, or information that could help investigators, to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).