The homicide of 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain,
a black Marine vet shot dead at his home by police in White Plains, New York,
last November after he accidentally set off his wearable medical alert device.
A previous BB post on the story is here.
The victim's son and other advocates have been pressuring authorities to
release the name of the officer involved:
Documented in audio recordings, the White Plains police
reportedly used a racial slur, burst through Chamberlain’s door, tasered him,
then shot him dead. "The last time I actually really saw my father, other
than the funeral, was at the hospital, with his eyes wide open, his tongue
hanging out his mouth, and two bullet holes in his chest," said Kenneth
Chamberlain, Jr. "And I’m staring at my father, wondering, 'What
happened?'"
The alleged shooter, Officer Anthony Carelli, is due in court later this
month in an unrelated 2008 police brutality case. He is accused of being the
most brutal of a group of officers who allegedly beat two arrestees of Jordanian
descent and called them "rag heads."
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.
Exclusive: Cop in Fatal Shooting of Ex-Marine Kenneth Chamberlain ID’d,
Sued in 2008 Racism Case
In a broadcast exclusive, we reveal the name of the
police officer who allegedly killed 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain, the
retired African-American Marine who was shot dead in his own home in White
Plains, New York, in November after he inadvertently triggered his medical
alert pendant. Documented in audio recordings, the White Plains police
reportedly used a racial slur, burst through Chamberlain’s door, tasered him,
then shot him dead. "The last time I actually really saw my father, other
than the funeral, was at the hospital, with his eyes wide open, his tongue
hanging out his mouth, and two bullet holes in his chest," said Kenneth
Chamberlain, Jr. "And I’m staring at my father, wondering, 'What
happened?'"
The alleged shooter, Officer Anthony Carelli, is due in
court later this month in an unrelated 2008 police brutality case. He is
accused of being the most brutal of a group of officers who allegedly beat two
arrestees of Jordanian descent and called them "rag heads." We speak
to Gus Dimopoulos, attorney for Jerry and Sal Hatter. "We allege that the
police officers, while in the custody of the White Plains Police Department
back at the station, you know, severely beat Jerry while being restrained by
handcuffs. They hit him in the face with a nightstick, they kicked, they
punched, they punched him, and then essentially charged him with a crime,"
Dimopoulos said.
Despite repeated requests from Chamberlain’s family for
the name of the officer who killed him, White Plains Public Safety Commissioner
David Chong only named Carelli as the shooter this morning, after his name
appeared in an article written by Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez in the New
York Daily News. The White Plains police have refused to say whether Carelli
has been disciplined or assigned to desk duty after the fatal shooting of
Chamberlain. We get an update on the Chamberlain case from the victim's son,
Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., and his two attorneys, Mayo Bartlett and Abdulwali
Muhammad. We also speak with Gus Dimopoulos, a lawyer for the 2008 victims,
Jereis Hatter and Salameh Hatter. [includes rush transcript]
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.
White Plains cop who killed ex-Marine Kenneth Chamberlain
faces brutality suit
The
White Plains police officer who fatally shot Kenneth Chamberlain in November is
one of six city officers going on trial this month in a $10 million federal
civil rights lawsuit accusing them of using excessive force during an arrest
four years ago.
Jereis
Hattar, 27, a Jordanian-American from Yonkers, claims Officer Anthony Carelli
hit him in the eye with a baton while he was handcuffed in the booking area of
police headquarters early on May 24, 2008. Hattar and his twin brother,
Salameh, were arrested that morning outside Black Bear Saloon on Mamaroneck
Avenue.
The
brothers have accused Carelli and the other officers of beating and kicking
them and calling them “ragheads” and other racial slurs.
The
officers’ lawyer, Joseph Maria, said there was no police brutality that night,
just two brothers who had too much to drink, including one who was hurt in a
bar fight before the police arrived.
“He was
injured already when (the officers) put him in the car, and then he kept
banging his head around in there,” Maria said.
In March
2009, a city judge acquitted the brothers of disorderly conduct charges. Two
months later, they sued the officers, the city and the Police Department.
In
January, U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti dismissed all of Salameh
Hattar’s claims, as well as his brother’s claims against the city, the Police
Department and another officer.
In
addition to Carelli, the officers facing trial this month are Sgt. John Glynn
and Officers Julio Orellana, Sebastian DaCosta, Hector Fuentes and Julio
Rivera.
Orellana
and Carelli claimed in depositions that, on the ride to the police station,
Jereis Hattar repeatedly banged his head against the police car partition. But
a doctor is expected to testify for Hattar that his eye injury was inconsistent
with hitting his head in such a manner.
Maria insisted he had no
idea until Thursday that one of his clients was the officer involved in the
fatal shooting in November. He said it would have no bearing on the upcoming
trial because details of the shooting would not be admissible and the judge
would screen jurors to determine whether they had knowledge of the shooting or
had formed an opinion of it.
Chamberlain,
an ex-Marine and retired Westchester County correction officer, was killed in
his apartment Nov. 19 after police responded to a medical-alert notification.
It was not
until this week, as the Westchester District Attorney’s Office is about to
present the case to a grand jury, that police publicly identified Carelli as
the officer who shot Chamberlain.
Randolph
M. McLaughlin, a lawyer for the Chamberlain family, said the lawsuit confirmed
their suspicions about Carelli.
“We
really wondered all along why this man’s name wasn’t released, and now we
know,” he said. “This individual has a pending federal court case against him
involving police brutality and includes the use of racial slurs. The police
should have known that he had issues and mandated retraining. They apparently
did absolutely nothing. So not only did he beat up someone in handcuffs, now
he’s killed someone.”
The
other family lawyer, Mayo Bartlett, said Carelli’s name “should have been
released immediately.”
“My
concern is that he was working with no restrictions despite the fact that he’s
facing a federal lawsuit on brutality allegations,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett called for police
to release the names of all the officers involved in the Chamberlain case
Damon
Jones, New York representative for Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, said
cover-ups of police brutality in Westchester are “systematic” and he blamed
that on District Attorney Janet DiFiore.
He said
DiFiore’s decision to prosecute the Hattar brothers was part of a cover-up and
that her administration “has never prosecuted any police officer in Westchester
County for any cases of police brutality.”
He said she continuously
turns over investigations of questionable police actions “back to the police
department in question,” and prosecutes the victims.
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.
