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Charles Barkley Says Events Leading Up To Breonna Taylor’s Death Matter

(Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images for The Match)

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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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 death of Breonna Taylor. However, National Basketball Association (NBA) analyst Charles Barkley said Thursday that people need to remember what led up to the fatal incident.

“We do have to take into account that her boyfriend did shoot at the cops and shot a cop,” Barkley said while speaking on the TNT pregame show for the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets game four. “So like I said, even though I’m really sorry she lost her life, I don’t think we can put this in the same situation with George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.”

Breonna Taylor was killed March 13 after three Louisville Metro Police Department officers executed a search warrant.

Police said they knocked on the door and identified themselves, according to the Courier Journal. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said the knocking woke him and Taylor up, and they called out to ask who was at the door but Walker said no one responded, per the same report.

Walker grabbed his legally owned gun and he and Taylor were walking toward the door when police used a battering ram to knock the door down.

Walker then fired at the plain-clothes officer, prompting all three officers to return fire. Taylor was killed by the gunfire. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Attorney Breaks Down The Breonna Taylor Decision–What Comes Next?)

On Wednesday a grand jury indicted only former Louisville Metro officer Brett Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. The other two officers involved in Taylor’s death were not charged.