Booth shot woman after Aurora ICE protest, police say

Brandon Booth, a 42-year-old off-duty Geo Group employee at Aurora's ICE Processing Center, shot a woman in the foot Thursday night after a verbal clash that followed a weekly protest outside the facility, Aurora police say. Booth faces attempted-murder and assault charges; the injury was not life-threatening.

The shooting unfolded just before 7:30 p.m. in the 3100 block of North Nome Street, according to an arrest affidavit cited by The Denver Post. Officers monitoring the weekly demonstration saw the gunfire, treated the victim, and stopped Booth less than two miles away.

The bizarre confrontation joins other strange U.S. crime stories we track in Bizarre News & Florida Man.

Key Takeaways

• Booth, employed by Geo Group at the Aurora ICE Processing Center, was off-duty when he fired a personally owned pistol.
• One woman was shot in the back of the foot; a second woman with her was not injured.
• Police booked Booth on attempted second-degree murder, assault, felony menacing, and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon.
• Geo Group placed Booth on unpaid administrative leave and said it would cooperate with investigators.
• Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called the shooting a tragedy and said violence will not be tolerated.

Who is Booth and what charges does he face?

Booth told Aurora police he had worked at the 1,500-bed detention center for three years. Geo Group, contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed he was an off-duty Aurora ICE Processing Center employee.

After fleeing in a Chevrolet Tahoe, Booth was detained near East 37th Avenue and Havana Street. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. He was held on $500,000 bail at the Adams County jail.

What led to the shooting outside the detention center?

Before the shooting, Booth and other Geo Group employees were waiting outside their vehicles along Nome Street because the demonstration had blocked them from entering for work, the affidavit said.

Two women walked by and yelled at the group, calling them "race traitors, Nazis and other derogatory terms," police wrote. The women shouted that they would run license plates to find where employees lived and where their children attended school. Booth told police one threat was that people would be at his kids' school.

Booth said the threat about his children raised his anger to "a 15 out of 10," though he also told investigators he did not think the threats were viable or that his children were in immediate danger. He said he acted impulsively.

According to police, Booth pulled a pistol from a cross-body bag, walked into the street, and fired, saying he wanted to scare the women and aim between them. Detectives wrote that Booth claimed he is "a better shot" than shown and that if he had intended to hit someone, he would have. He later told police he realized he had done something stupid and drove away. The bullet struck the woman in the back of the foot.

How have police and Geo Group responded?

Geo Group said Booth was placed on unpaid administrative leave and that the company would fully cooperate with law enforcement. Aurora police spokeswoman Gabby Easterwood said Thursday night that the injury was not life-threatening; the wounded woman was treated at a hospital.

Chief Todd Chamberlain pledged a thorough review. "Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not," he said. Immigrant advocates noted Thursday was the first violent act to mar weekly vigils outside the facility, according to reporting on the case.

Anyone with information can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867, Aurora police said.