Basketball great Charles Barkley is facing criticism over his comments on the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
"It's bad this young lady lost her life," Barkley said of Taylor. "But we do have to take into account that her boyfriend did shoot at the cops and shot a cop. So, like I say, even though I am really sorry she lost her life, I don't think we can just say we can put this in the same situation as George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. I just don't believe that."
His remarks came on the TNT pregame show for the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets Western Conference Finals game. He also disagreed with calls to defund the police, saying it would have a major impact on Black communities.
"I'm like, wait a minute, who are Black people supposed to call, Ghostbusters?" he said.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that Barkley was blasted on social media after he appeared, to some, to defend the police officers involved in Taylor's death.
"I didn't know I could be this disgusted by Charles Barkley," Democrat strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeted, along with others who expressed similar views.
But basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal agreed with Barkley on the Taylor shooting, according to Yahoo Sports.
"I have to agree with Charles, this one is sort of lumped in," O'Neal said.
On Wednesday, a Kentucky grand jury indicted a single police officer for shooting into neighboring apartments but did not bring any charges against any officers for their role in Taylor's death.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.