AURORA, Colo. — The GEO Group employee arrested near an immigrant detention center in Aurora last week told police he had never received formal weapons training and believed his children's lives were threatened by two protesters moments before he fired at them, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Denver7 Tuesday.
Brandon Booth, 42, was arrested Thursday night shortly after reportedly firing his gun at 21-year-old Emma Landis and 38-year-old Mandy Dillon. Landis, who was shot in the foot and who spoke with Denver7 over the weekend about the incident, said Booth was mocking them as they approached his vehicle to confront him.
"We were pretty much saying you guys are Nazis, and what you're doing is messed up," Landis said, adding they were also calling for the GEO Group employees to be held accountable for working in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But new details about the confrontation revealed in the arrest affidavit show Landis and Dillon didn’t just call the GEO Group employees “Nazis” and “race traitors” as they confronted them.
Booth told police that as both women walked past, they said, “we got your license plate, we’re gonna run you down, we’re gonna have people at your kids’ school.”
Video obtained from Landis’ cell phone of the confrontation with Booth corroborate this interaction.
“You can hear Landis and Dillon yelling at the GEO facility employees and recording the vehicles and license plates. Landis and Dillon do make statements about the license plates and now being able to find out where they live and which schools their kids go to, and other statements about family,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Arresting documents show the women never made statements about harming, or their intent to harm, Booth’s family. Booth himself told police later that he did not believe the threats were viable or that his children were in immediate danger, describing the shooting as “impulsive.”
Still, Booth said he perceived those statements by protesters as a threat against his children, which “caused his anger level to reach ‘a 15 out of 10.’”
“Booth stated that when the protesters made the statement about having people at his children’s school, he immediately unzipped the crossbody bag, grabbed the firearm, drew it, and pointed it in the direction of the two female protesters,” the affidavit states.
Aurora
Woman shot outside Aurora ICE facility says she'll keep protesting
Booth told police his intent was never to hit the protesters, but to scare them.
The suspect “stated he aimed between the two women, attempting to split the difference between them, and aimed toward ‘the outside of the body’ rather than center mass or vital areas” before he “intentionally pulled the trigger and fired one round,” according to the probable cause statement.
Upon firing the gun, Booth “realized he was on camera and had ‘done some dumb s—t,’” the affidavit states, adding he did not know if he had hit anyone when he got into his 2016 black Chevrolet Tahoe as he attempted to flee.
After he was detained by police, Booth said he was not usually armed while working at the GEO facility and does not have a concealed carry permit, stating he believed his vehicle was an extension of his person and therefore he could legally possess the firearm in his vehicle and on his person in the crossbody bag.
Further, he told police he had never worked as armed security before and had never received formal weapons training, instead teaching himself how to shoot a gun, though he had never fired the black 1911 pistol he used the day of the shooting.
“Booth stated he is ‘a better shot’ than he demonstrated and that if he had intended to hit someone, he would have,” the affidavit states.
The suspect also told police he had “been thinking about his children and whether he killed someone during the hours since the incident,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Booth, who is on administrative leave, is now facing several felony charges in connection with the shooting, including second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon and felony menacing.
A spokesperson with the GEO Group told Denver7 last week that the company would "fully cooperate with law enforcement” on their investigation into the shooting.
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. But last week, 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.
Protests at the Aurora ICE detention center have continued after the shooting, with most protesters calling out the treatment of immigrant detainees at the facility.
In response to these protests, a GEO Group spokesperson has previously said they are committed to the safety and care of detainees and complies with federal detention standards.
ICE, too, has previously defended its treatment of detainees at the Aurora facility, telling The Denver Post it spends millions annually on health care services.
Booth's first court appearance is Wednesday.