Brandon Booth, a GEO Group employee at the Aurora ICE Processing Center, is scheduled to appear in Adams County District Court this afternoon for a preliminary hearing on felony assault charges stemming from the July 16 shooting of a protester outside the facility.
Booth, 42, faces one count of first-degree assault and one count of attempted first-degree assault. Prosecutors reduced the original suspicions that included attempted second-degree murder. He remains in custody at the Adams County Jail after his bond was lowered from $500,000 to $100,000 cash or surety. First-degree assault carries a potential sentence of 10 to 32 years.
GEO employee accused of shooting protester outside Aurora ICE detention facility - Sentinel Colorado
The Shooting
On the evening of July 16, protesters gathered outside the GEO-operated ICE Processing Center in Aurora, a 1,500-bed detention facility contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. GEO employees, including Booth, were unable to enter for their shifts because of the demonstration. They waited near their vehicles on North Nome Street.
Two women, including 21-year-old Emma Landis, approached the group. A verbal confrontation followed. According to the arrest affidavit, the women took photos of the workers’ vehicles and directed insults at them, including calling them “Nazis” and “race traitors.” Booth, who is Black, told police the women then said something to the effect of “We got your license plate, we’re going to run you down, we’re going to have people at your kids’ school.” He claimed this comment sent his anger to “a 15 out of 10.”
As the women walked away, Booth pulled a personally owned handgun from a cross-body bag he was carrying. He had no concealed-carry permit and told investigators he had never received formal firearms training. He walked into the street, aimed between the two women, and fired a single shot. The bullet struck Landis in the foot. The second woman was uninjured.
Booth told police he only intended to scare them and did not mean to hit anyone. After firing, he got in his vehicle and drove away. He later told officers he realized he had “done some dumb shit” once he saw the women recording on their phones. Aurora SWAT officers who were monitoring the protest witnessed the shooting, applied a tourniquet to Landis, and arrested Booth a short distance away.
Landis was treated at a hospital for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her foot. She has since returned to protests outside the same facility on crutches and a knee scooter, stating she will not allow the shooting to silence opposition to the detention center.
Protester shot by Geo Group employee near Aurora detention center, police say
The Contractor and the Facility
GEO Group is one of the largest private prison operators in the United States and a major ICE contractor. The company profits from the federal detention of migrants under contracts that expand as enforcement intensifies. Workers at these facilities operate inside a system designed to warehouse people for profit while shielding the federal government from direct operational responsibility.
GEO placed Booth on unpaid administrative leave after the shooting and stated it would cooperate with law enforcement. The company has not publicly addressed the deeper question of why its employees arrive at a detention center carrying personal firearms into confrontations with protesters.
Woman shot outside Aurora ICE facility returns to protest
Context of Escalating Tension
Weekly protests outside the Aurora facility have focused on detention conditions, medical neglect, and the broader machinery of immigration enforcement. The shooting occurred against a backdrop of heightened federal enforcement actions. Booth’s decision to draw and fire a personal weapon at unarmed protesters walking away illustrates how privatized detention infrastructure can turn ordinary employees into agents of street-level repression.
Landis and other demonstrators have continued showing up. The material reality remains: a private contractor’s worker used a personal pistol against people opposing the cages his employer is paid to operate. The court will now determine whether the evidence supports the assault charges as the case moves forward. The preliminary hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. today.
