A worker at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center was booked on suspicion of attempted murder after shooting a protester, Colorado police say.
Aurora police said protesters were blocking ICE workers’ access to the ICE facility on Thursday evening when two female protesters got into a verbal altercation with the workers and took photos of their vehicles.
She was shot in the lower part of her body, but her injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.
Brandon Booth, 42, allegedly “retrieved his personally owned pistol” and fired it at the two protesters as they walked away, striking one. He got back into his car and drove away.
Police said they were notified about the shooting around 7:30 a.m.
Booth was detained about two blocks away from the location of the shooting on Nome Street with a gun in his vehicle, police said.
The victim, who has not been identified, was described as a protester by police.
She was shot in the lower part of her body, but her injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.
Both 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,” according to the police statement.
A spokesperson for GEO Group, which runs the ICE facility, released a brief statement about the incident to CBS News.
“We are aware that an off-duty Aurora ICE Processing Center employee was involved in a shooting incident,” the statement reads. “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” in a statement Friday.
The Colorado District Attorney’s Office for Adams and Broomfield Counties declined to comment in an email to Blaze News.
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The district attorney’s office said official charges would be announced after the next hearing on July 22.
“We remain committed to ensuring an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review of this case. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not,” Chamberlain concluded.
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