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Charles Barkley says Breonna Taylor shooting not same as George Floyd, faces heat: 'Cops let her bleed out'

'It's just bad the young lady lost her life, but we do have to take into account that her boyfriend did shoot at the cops and shot a cop,' Barkley said

Former NBA player and commentator Charles Barkley came under fire for his comments on the Breonna Taylor case, even as protesters continue to take to the streets in Louisville, Kentucky, and other major cities following Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s decision not to charge two of the officers involved in the fatal shooting.

While speaking on the TNT pregame show for the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets Game 4, Barkley said: "It's just bad the young lady lost her life, but we do have to take into account that her boyfriend did shoot at the cops and shot a cop," alluding to the fact that Kenneth Walker fired a warning shot after he thought were people breaking into the home. "So, like I said, even though I'm really sorry she lost her life, I don't think we can just put this in the same situation as George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery."

Needless to say, people on social media did not take well to Barkley's comments. "No, #charlesbarkley, he shot at intruders. These intruders, who happened to be Police, did not identify themselves. He had every right to defend himself and Breonna against whoever was breaking into his house unannounced," one user noted, while another pointed out, "He didn't shoot at the police, her shot at armed Intruders that entered their dwelling." A third opined, "The cops literally let her bleed out instead of calling in the EMTs. 20 minutes passed before she was helped." A fourth said, "Bruh, someone comes banging at my door at 1am, without identifying themselves, THEN, kicking my door in...what am I supposed to do....keep asking who is it??" A fifth user wrote, "BECAUSE he thought they were breaking in! What happened to “stand your ground” for him? And Breonna Taylor simply was there. Please!"

One of the users preferred to look at the whole case from an objective point of view. "The key to who’s responsible may go back to the warrant and the detective who wrote it up. It will hard to charge the 2 cops since they were legally doing their job and have the right (according to present law) to defend themselves.But if the warrant was based on false info.." the user commented. However, there are those who sided with Barkley. "They did identify themselves. Don’t shoot at the police," one of them said, while another remarked, "The cops announced themselves and a witness confirmed it. There’s no excuse for shooting the cops in that situation."

Shaquille O'Neal, who was has been sworn in as an honorary deputy city marshal in Georgia and a reserve officer in the states of California, Arizona and Florida, agreed with Barkley's comments. "I have to agree with Charles, this one is sort of lumped in," Shaq said. "You have to get a warrant signed and some states do allow no-knock warrants. And everyone was asking for murder charges. When you talk about murder, you have to show intent. A homicide occurred and we're sorry a homicide occurred. When you have a warrant signed by the judge, you are doing your job, and I would imagine that you would fire back."

Barkley disagreed with calls to abolish and defund the police. "I hear these fools on TV talk about 'defund the police,' we need police reform and prison reform and things like that because you know who ain't gonna defund the cops, white neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods," he said during the show. "So that notion that they keep saying that, I'm like wait a minute who are Black people supposed to call? Ghostbusters? We need police reform."