Colorado ICE Facility Worker Arrested After Shooting During Protest Confrontation

Brandon Booth, 42, an employee of GEO Group, was arrested Thursday evening after police said he shot a woman who had protested outside the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado. Officers found the woman with a gunshot wound to her lower body. A friend accompanying her was unharmed.

Aurora police said Booth was waiting in his car on a nearby street with other workers when a demonstration blocked access to the facility. Two female protesters confronted the employees verbally and took pictures of their cars before walking away. Booth then fired a single shot from his personally owned pistol toward the two women, striking one, before driving off.

Officers arrested him two blocks from the scene. The New York Post reported that Booth was charged with assault and attempted second-degree murder. The Aurora ICE Processing Facility is Colorado’s only operating ICE detention center and holds up to 1,500 people.

A GEO Group spokesperson said the company was aware that an off-duty employee was involved in a shooting incident. The company placed the individual on unpaid administrative leave and stated it will fully cooperate with law enforcement. Aurora Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain said the department will investigate the incident with commitment to transparency and integrity.

He added that the department remains committed to an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review and that violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora.