Woman shot outside Aurora ICE facility returns to protest

Just days after she was shot at a protest, 22-year-old Emma Landis spoke to supporters at the scene of the crime.

The shooting, which made national headlines, happened at the end of a protest outside the facility in Aurora on Thursday. Police arrested Brandon Booth, an employee of facility operator GEO Group, shortly afterward.

“He shot me in the right foot. We were on the sidewalk protesting, and they were mocking us and threatening us. And as we were crossing the street, that was when he shot me,” Landis said at a demonstration Sunday at the facility. “Never in a million years did I think that would happen.”

In a separate interview with More Perfect Union, Landis said she had to call 911 herself as Booth and his colleagues left the scene

Landis was joined on Sunday by Kristen Arigoni, a longtime community activist and friend.

“I want to talk about what Emma is and what Emma is not. What Emma is, is an activist, an artist, a human, a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter and a friend. She is not a moment, a meme or a movement,” Arigoni said. “So what I ask of you today is to listen to Emma’s story and use it as an opportunity not to tell her story but to find your own, to stand on your own platform, to raise your own voices as Emma chose to raise hers.”

Landis said she is on bed rest for six to eight weeks as she recovers.

“It’s frustrating and I can’t do my hobbies. I can’t work. I can’t do anything,” she said. “This put a pause on my life. And because somebody was hurt by the words that I was saying to him, that doesn’t give you the right to shoot somebody.”

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