Aurora ICE detention employee arrested for shooting protester

An employee of a private immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado, was arrested and charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting a female protester outside the facility on Thursday night, July 16, 2026. The Aurora Police Department announced the arrest of 42-year-old Brandon Booth on Friday, July 17.

According to police, officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 3100 block of North Nome Street before 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. They found a woman who had been shot in her lower body. An investigation determined that the victim and another woman had been participating in a protest outside the Aurora ICE Processing Center, a facility operated by the private prison contractor GEO Group.

Police said Booth and other employees were waiting in their vehicles on Nome Street, unable to enter the complex to start their work shifts due to the protest. The two women initiated a verbal confrontation with the employees and took photographs of their vehicles before walking away. Authorities allege that Booth then retrieved a personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in their direction, striking one woman. Booth then drove away from the scene but was detained by...