An Adams County district judge on Wednesday ruled that there’s enough evidence to move forward with the criminal case against Brandon Booth, a Geo Group employee at the Aurora immigration detention center who is accused of shooting a protester in July.
Booth, 42, is charged with first-degree assault and attempted assault, both with extreme indifference, after police say he shot at two women, hitting one, as they were yelling insults at him and other Geo Group employees standing outside the facility on July 16.
Booth shot one of the women in the foot and told police he meant to shoot between the two protesters to scare them because he became enraged when the women said they would find out where his children went to school and have people show up there, according to his arrest affidavit.
The women were leaving a protest outside the facility, which had prevented Booth and other workers from getting inside.
Booth appeared Wednesday at a preliminary hearing in Adams County District Court, where his attorney and Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Carty questioned Aurora police Sgt. Gabriel Nestor about the investigation.
Booth’s attorney, Julia Stancil, questioned Nestor about whether Booth knew he had shot someone when he fled the scene and whether he intended to hurt anyone. Booth previously told police he did not know he had shot someone and had not intended to hit either woman.
But Judge Martin Flaum ruled prosecutors had shown there was enough evidence to support the assault and attempted-assault charges, adding that one of the women was seriously injured and the second could have been injured or killed.
“The intentional or knowing discharge of a firearm in the direction of these two individuals for the purpose of scaring (them) certainly, in this court’s opinion, meets the definition of extreme indifference,” Flaum said.
Booth is set to appear in court for an arraignment hearing on Oct. 12.
