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GEO officer who allegedly shot protester in foot charged with first-degree assault

17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason announced two charges — first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault — against the GEO employee who allegedly shot a protester in the foot.

Booth faced a judge Wednesday afternoon in a striped Adams County Jail shirt to hear the charges filed against him, according to a news release.

Emma Landis, the 21-year-old victim, sat in the front row with a cast on her foot and entered and left the courtroom on a knee scooter.

Court officials set Booth’s next court date for Aug. 13.

Booth allegedly shot Landis on July 16 after Landis and a friend yelled at him and other GEO employees outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center at 3130 Oakland St. in Aurora.

After the shooting, Booth told investigators that he meant to scare them, not hit them, and realized he had “done some dumb (expletive)” when he saw the protesters recording on their cellphones.

Landis called 911 at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, telling dispatchers she had been shot and could not feel her foot, according to Booth’s arrest affidavit.

She and her friend, 38-year-old Mandy Dillon, were protesting outside the detention facility prior to the shooting and left to take a call.

As they left, they approached Booth and other GEO employees waiting to go to work and started yelling “derogatory terms” at them, calling them “race traitors” and “Nazis,” the affidavit said.

Booth then drew his personal gun and shot Landis in her right foot, according to investigators. He got into his car and left.

SWAT officers arrested Booth nearby.

Landis was assisted at the scene and transported to a local hospital, where she is recovering, according to a GoFundMe page created to help her with medical bills and legal fees.

Booth has been employed as a corrections officer at the GEO facility for about three years and his criminal record shows charges of driving under the influence, driving under suspension and two protection orders.

He told officers that the two protesters threatened to “run you down” and “have people at your kids’ school.” The threats “caused his anger level to reach a 15 out of 10,” he told investigators.

In cellphone footage from Landis and Dillon, the two are heard making statements about license plates and being able to find out where the GEO employees live and what school their kids go to, but no statements of threats were heard in the footage.

A GEO Group spokesperson said the company is aware of the incident and placed Booth on unpaid administrative leave. GEO will fully cooperate with law enforcement, the spokesperson said.



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