Most voters in a new survey say the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer last week was not justified, but the country remains largely divided over footage of the incident.
In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, published Tuesday, 53 percent of registered voters say the ICE officer was not justified in shooting Renee Good, the 37-year-old who was shot and killed in a standoff with federal law enforcement on Jan. 7. Another 35 percent said the response was justified and 12 percent did not know.
The incident, whose video footage quickly went viral last week, has polarized the public, with some agreeing with the Trump administration’s assessment that the ICE official acted in self-defense, fearing the woman would run him over. Others have also claimed the video shows the woman trying to flee from law enforcement in her vehicle when she was shot in the head by the officer.
Democrats’ and Republicans’ views of the incident largely break along party lines, though the former are more unified on the matter, with 92 percent of Democratic respondents saying the shooting was not justified and 4 percent saying it was.
Among Republicans, 77 percent of registered voters say the shooting was justified, while 10 percent say it was not, according to the survey. Independents, meanwhile, are more inclined to agree with Democrats, with 59 percent saying the shooting was not justified, and 28 percent saying it was, the poll found.
A recent YouGov poll shows similar results, with 53 percent of Americans saying the officer was not justified in shooting Good and 28 percent saying he was.
The YouGov survey also shows similar unity among Democrats, with 88 percent saying the ICE officer was not justified. Republicans, however, were more divided: 61 percent say he was justified, 24 percent are not sure and 15 percent say he was not justified.
Results for independents are similar in both polls, with 58 percent saying in the Quinnipiac poll that the officer was not justified in shooting Good, 22 percent saying they’re not sure, and 20 percent saying he was justified in his actions.
The latest survey, conducted Jan. 8-12, included 1,133 self-identified registered voters. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.