Emma Landis is still in a bit of shock.
Before now, the 21-year-old from Littleton has never felt like she was in danger while attending weekly protests outside the Aurora immigration detention center – that is, before a worker at the facility allegedly shot her in the foot as she was walking away from a confrontation after a protest Thursday night.
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Landis said she knew protests could get violent, but it felt like something she’s only seen online.
“You prepare yourself for all the outcomes that can come, but did I expect it to happen? No. Did I think I would be in danger at that event? No,” she said Wednesday, shortly after leaving a court hearing for 42-year-old Brandon Booth, the man accused of shooting her.
Aurora police said Booth, who works for private prison operator Geo Group, was standing with a group of coworkers near their vehicles along Nome Street because the demonstration was preventing them from getting into the facility to start their shifts.
Officers already at the scene said the workers, Landis and another woman with Landis started verbally sparring as the women walked by, with the women shouting insults at the Geo Group employees and threatening to run their license plates and find out where their children went to school.
Booth told police he got so angry about the threats that he pulled out a gun and shot at the women as they walked away to scare them, hitting Landis in the back of the foot. He told police he did not intend to shoot anyone, according to his arrest affidavit.
Landis said she saw Booth holding something in a bag on his chest and started feeling threatened, which is when she and her friend turned and walked away.
“I felt the burning and I looked at my foot and saw the blood, and that’s when I called 911,” she said.
Booth fled the scene and was arrested a short time later.
Colorado prosecutors on Wednesday charged him with first-degree assault and attempted assault, both felonies, the district attorney’s office said.
The DA’s office did not file attempted murder, felony menacing or weapons charges, which Aurora police had also accused Booth of in his arrest affidavit.
Booth appeared in Adams County District Court in handcuffs and a black-and-white striped jumpsuit on Wednesday afternoon and did not speak during the short hearing.
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Landis’ attorney, Siddhartha Rathod of the Denver firm Rathod Mohamedbhai, said he, his client and his firm commend the DA’s office for bringing charges and support the decision.
Landis said she’s still trying to process everything that’s happened in the past week. Political activism is something she learned early in life, she said, by going to demonstrations like the 2017 Women’s March with her parents.
“If you see something wrong, you say that it’s wrong, you report it or find a way to fix that problem,” she said.
Landis said she’s not deterred from protesting because of her injury – if anything, it’s the opposite.
“It honestly makes me want to do more,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want to be used as an “example” of what happens when people protest.
“I want to be used as an advocate, a way for voices to be heard that need to be heard,” she said.
Landis also hopes what happened doesn’t discourage people in the community from speaking out.
“Keep being out there,” she said. “Know how important it is to speak for what you believe in.”
Booth remains in custody on a $100,000 bail and is set to appear in court on Aug. 13.
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