More than four months after a 68-year-old Marine Corps veteran was fatally shot inside his White Plains apartment by police, the case may be presented to a grand jury.
On Nov. 19, police were dispatched to the Winbrook Houses public housing project to aid Kenneth Chamberlain, a chronically ill heart patient. Chamberlain apparently had accidentally triggered his medical alert pendant, and when the responding officers banged on his door, he told them he was OK and refused to let them in.
But it didn’t end there. Chamberlain and the police became engaged in an hour-long standoff, and the officers eventually forced open the door, fearing someone else inside was in danger, according to police.
Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., son of the retired corrections officer, said the officers then used a Taser on his father for no reason, "shot him with a bean bag gun four times and then fired two fatal shots."
“My father was murdered by the same people that were supposed to come and help him,” the son said.
Police accounts say the elder Chamberlain had a knife.
The medical alert company’s voice box in the room captured the conversation, which has not been released to the public.
There is also abbreviated video of Chamberlain captured by the camera on the officer's stun gun.
Mayor Bartlett, the attorney representing the Chamberlain family, alleged the police officers used racial slurs and taunted the elderly man.
"When you do that, you create a situation that is unnecessary, that ultimately led to his death," said Bartlett.
White Plains police Commissioner David Chong says the shooter was Officer Anthony Carelli. He said his department is cooperating with the Westchester County district attorney's office. No one has been charged.
The officer's name had previously been withheld despite repeated calls from Chamberlain's family to make it public.
The case is expected to go to a grand jury this month, though the Westchester County district attorney’s office has not decided what charge it will ask the jurors to consider.
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