AURORA, Colo. — An employee of an immigrant detention center in Aurora has been arrested after reportedly shooting a protester outside the facility Thursday night.
Brandon Booth, 42, an employee of the GEO Group — a private prison company that operates detention facilities across the U.S. — was detained shortly after firing a single shot at two women who had blocked his vehicle from getting into the facility so he and others could begin their evening work shifts, according to police.
Investigators said that prior to the shooting, the women had shouted at Booth and his colleagues and had taken pictures of their vehicles before walking away.
At that point, police said, Booth retrieved a personally owned pistol and shot at the two women, striking one “on her lower body.”
Booth then got into his vehicle and fled the scene but was stopped a short distance away and subsequently detained, police said in a news release Friday.
The victim, who has not been identified, sustained injuries not considered life-threatening, according to an Aurora Police Department spokeswoman.
“This is a tragedy on all fronts, and the Aurora Police Department will investigate this incident with the same commitment to transparency and integrity as we do all shootings,” said Aurora Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain in a prepared statement. “Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society – violence is not.”
The ICE detention center in Aurora has been at the center of several immigrant rights protests in Colorado since President Donald Trump took office for a second time last year. This week, however, the facility came under the spotlight for refusing to cooperate with state and local health officials who are investigating a tuberculosis case in a detainee from last month.
Attorney General Phil Weiser told Denver7 his office is ready to work with the governor's office and state health officials to "bring GEO into compliance with the law."
GEO Group has until the end of day Friday to comply with the state investigation into the tuberculosis case. If they do not, the state health department "will determine appropriate next steps," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Thursday's shooting is likely to ignite more protests at the facility and against ICE overall.
Immigrants rights advocates across the country have called for a national day of action Saturday to demand justice for the deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, two men killed by ICE earlier this month who were not the target of enforcement action.
Yoselin Corrales, an organizer with Aurora Unidos CSO, told Denver7 Friday they're going to continue to make their voices heard outside the Aurora ICE detention center.
"We have the opportunity to speak out against the oppression and abuses that we're seeing in our community, and so we are going to continue to show up," Corrales said. "They may see this as something that would make us afraid, but this only makes us want to show up more."
Earlier this week, protesters demonstrated outside Hudson's Town Hall to oppose plans to convert a shuttered prison into a new immigration detention center in the small town of 1,600 people.
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Rep. Brittany Pettersen's office on Friday said she, on behalf of the Colorado Democratic delegation, again demanded answers from the Trump administration on the proposed ICE detention center in Hudson.
"The agency’s documented pattern of unlawful detentions, failure to comply with Congressional oversight, and harm to our communities makes this expansion not just misguided, but dangerous," the letter states. "Against this backdrop, we strongly oppose any increase in detention capacity in Colorado."
Booth is being held on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon, APD officials said.
Aurora police are asking with any additional information or footage of this shooting to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
Denver7's Veronica Acosta contributed to this report.
