#Trump: Rayshard Brooks’ killing ‘terrible situation,’ but ‘you can’t resist’ cops

President Trump called the killing of Rayshard Brooks at the hands of an Atlanta cop a “terrible situation,” but added in a televised interview that “you can’t resist a police officer.”

The president told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night that the death of the 27-year-old black man who was shot in the back during an altercation outside a Wendy’s was “very sad.”

But he added that law enforcement officers “have not been treated fairly.”

“I thought it was a terrible situation, but you can’t resist a police officer,” Trump said. “And, you know, if you have a disagreement you have to take it up after the fact.”

Former cop Garrett Rolfe was charged earlier Wednesday with felony murder and aggravated assault, among other offenses. The second officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, also faces criminal charges.

Fulton County DA Paul Howard said Rolfe kicked Brooks after he was shot, while his partner stood on the victim’s shoulder. The two did not render first aid for over two minutes after the shooting, prosecutors said.

In his interview on Fox News, Trump also said he couldn’t watch the entire video of Brooks’ killing.

“I couldn’t really watch it for that long a period of time, it was over eight minutes. Who could watch that?” he said. “But it doesn’t get any more obvious or it doesn’t get any worse than that.”

The president also referred to a statement released by Rolfe’s lawyers that said the former cop opened fire after hearing a sound “like a gunshot and saw a flash in front of him.”

“I don’t know that I would have necessarily believed that, but I will tell you that’s a very interesting thing,” Trump said, adding that what happens next is “going to be up to justice.”

“I hope he gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country,” Trump said of Rolfe.

“Again, you can’t resist a police officer like that. And they ended up in a very terrible disagreement and look at the way it ended. Very bad, very bad,” he added.

The president also voiced support for police in general, arguing that a “vast majority” of them are “great people.”

“You have bad and you have great,” Trump said. “You have cops and police and law enforcement, they’re great people. … They do an incredible job and they keep us all safe and they love their country and they don’t want to make any mistakes. But they’re under siege, there’s no question about that.”

On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order that will create a system for tracking police misconduct, ban most chokeholds, incentivize officer training and send social workers on some nonviolent police calls as Americans across the nation call for stringent police reforms.