Cops involved in shooting death of former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain made questionable choices
Many New Yorkers are shaking their heads after a grand jury’s decision that cops were justified when they Tasered and fatally shot 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain inside his White Plains apartment on the morning of Nov. 19.
After all, cops who killed Chamberlain had originally been dispatched to help him. They were responding to a call for help from a medical alert company after he accidentally triggered his heart pendant.
White Plains police took the unusual step of releasing Thursday audio and video recordings and reports produced by police and other emergency workers at the scene that night. But that won’t be enough to quiet the furor.
Sure, the tapes and reports leave little doubt that the former Marine and retired corrections officer was emotionally disturbed and brandished a knife when police tried to break down his door.
But they also show that during an hour-long standoff, he repeatedly told police from inside his apartment that he was okay, that he pleaded with them to go away.
“They have shotguns, stun guns, they have their Glocks out . . . they’re trying to kill me!” he yelled at one point, knowing that the LifeAid company had a two-way radio and recording device in his apartment. But there are so many important questions the documents and tapes don’t answer.
Why did cops insist on entering the apartment? Chamberlain was in his home and there was no report of a crime in progress. Then there’s the fact that several of the cops on the scene that night had prior accusations lodged against them of abuse against minority residents of White Plains.
There was Anthony Carelli, who shot Chamberlain. He is facing a civil rights lawsuit in federal court from two Jordanian immigrant brothers who claim he beat them in police headquarters and called them “ragheads.”
Officer Stephen Hart, caught on tape that night calling Chamberlain the N-word, is facing his own civil suit in federal court from a young Hispanic man, Edgar Maurado, a vice president of HSBC bank. Maurado alleges that Hart smashed his head against the pavement and broke his nose last January, while arresting him for disorderly conduct.
Sgt. Stephen Fottrell, one of the supervisors on the scene at Chamberlain’s house that night, has been fighting his own lawsuit in federal court from a black woman who claimed he fired a stun gun at her while trying to arrest her in 2009. A jury dismissed that case this week.
So the grand jury has completed its deliberations. But key questions surrounding Chamberlain’s death have yet to answered.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ses-questions-article-1.1072345#ixzz1tu1Zv11Q
Many New Yorkers are shaking their heads after a grand jury’s decision that cops were justified when they Tasered and fatally shot 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain inside his White Plains apartment on the morning of Nov. 19.
After all, cops who killed Chamberlain had originally been dispatched to help him. They were responding to a call for help from a medical alert company after he accidentally triggered his heart pendant.
White Plains police took the unusual step of releasing Thursday audio and video recordings and reports produced by police and other emergency workers at the scene that night. But that won’t be enough to quiet the furor.
Sure, the tapes and reports leave little doubt that the former Marine and retired corrections officer was emotionally disturbed and brandished a knife when police tried to break down his door.
But they also show that during an hour-long standoff, he repeatedly told police from inside his apartment that he was okay, that he pleaded with them to go away.
“They have shotguns, stun guns, they have their Glocks out . . . they’re trying to kill me!” he yelled at one point, knowing that the LifeAid company had a two-way radio and recording device in his apartment. But there are so many important questions the documents and tapes don’t answer.
Why did cops insist on entering the apartment? Chamberlain was in his home and there was no report of a crime in progress. Then there’s the fact that several of the cops on the scene that night had prior accusations lodged against them of abuse against minority residents of White Plains.
There was Anthony Carelli, who shot Chamberlain. He is facing a civil rights lawsuit in federal court from two Jordanian immigrant brothers who claim he beat them in police headquarters and called them “ragheads.”
Officer Stephen Hart, caught on tape that night calling Chamberlain the N-word, is facing his own civil suit in federal court from a young Hispanic man, Edgar Maurado, a vice president of HSBC bank. Maurado alleges that Hart smashed his head against the pavement and broke his nose last January, while arresting him for disorderly conduct.
Sgt. Stephen Fottrell, one of the supervisors on the scene at Chamberlain’s house that night, has been fighting his own lawsuit in federal court from a black woman who claimed he fired a stun gun at her while trying to arrest her in 2009. A jury dismissed that case this week.
So the grand jury has completed its deliberations. But key questions surrounding Chamberlain’s death have yet to answered.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ses-questions-article-1.1072345#ixzz1tu1Zv11Q
