Yesterday, Newman Ferrara LLP filed a Notice of Claim in connection with the shooting of Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., who was African-American and 68 years of age at the time of his untimely death.
Mr. Chamberlain was killed by White Plains, New York, police officers who were responding to a medical alert call. Although Mr. Chamberlain informed the officers that he did not need medical assistance, officers continued to bang on his apartment door for over one hour, cursed at him, used a racial slur, and belittled him. Eventually, the officers forcibly entered the unit, fired a Taser and bean bags from a shot gun, and, shot him in the chest with two bullets from a handgun.
Audio and video tapes clearly demonstrate that Mr. Chamberlain did not pose a deadly threat to the officers before he was killed.
Commenting on the case, Newman Ferrara attorney Randolph M. McLaughlin said, "One of our most basic constitutional rights is the right to be secure in our own homes. The police violated that right and turned his home into a death chamber."
Newman Ferrara attorney Randolph McLaughlin (left) stands next to the decedent's son, Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr. (at microphones)