Chamberlain case sgt.: Cop who shot 'saved my life'

A White Plains police officer told a jury that he "had no other option" but to shoot Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. during a 2011 standoff because he believed the man was about to harm a police sergeant.

On Monday afternoon, Anthony Carelli took the stand in U.S. District Court and testified that it was his responsibility "to protect the other officers" from Chamberlain, whom he believed was "egging on" police with taunts to shoot him.

Carelli and the city of White Plains are on trial as part of a $21 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Chamberlain, who was fatally shot by Carelli on Nov. 19, 2011, after an hour-long confrontation at Chamberlain's apartment at 135 S. Lexington Ave. Carelli, as well as now-retired sergeant Keith Martin, testified Monday in the case.

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Officers have testified that Carelli shot Chamberlain as the 68-year-old man rushed toward Martin while holding a knife and after threatening to kill officers.

"I don't believe I'd be standing here" if Carelli hadn't shot Chamberlain, Martin testified this morning in White Plains federal court. "I thought I was going to get stabbed."

Martin told the jury how Chamberlain, a retired corrections officer, was mostly unfazed after officers shot him with a Taser and four non-lethal beanbags from a shotgun.

Debra Cohen, one of the Chamberlain family's lawyers, asked him if he was nervous after the first beanbag hit Chamberlain with little effect.

"Yes ma'am, I was already nervous," Carelli said.

Carelli testified that he was supposed to have ended his shift already when police were initially called to Chamberlain's apartment for a medical incident around 5 a.m. He said his shift was supposed to end at 4 a.m., but he was still at police headquarters because he was finishing paperwork after making an arrest.

Carelli said he was sent to Chamberlain's apartment because he covered that neighborhood as a patrol officer and had a master key to the apartment.

Martin, who retired in 2013 and was a sergeant at the time of the shooting, said that Carelli was assigned "lethal cover."

"My understanding was I was the last option," Carelli testified. "[If there was still an imminent threat] I was to use lethal force to stop that imminent threat."

Martin said he fired four beanbags at Chamberlain in an effort to force him to at least one knee so officers could diffuse the situation. Chamberlain only had a "minor flinch" after the first beanbag round hit him in the thigh, though, Carelli said.

"I was expecting him to react more than he did," Carelli said.

While Martin shot the beanbags hoping it would disarm Chamberlain as a way to prevent the situation from “progressing further,” Carelli said, “it didn’t incapacitate him at all.” As Martin tried to subdue Chamberlain, Carelli stood at the threshold of the doorway, holding his gun at a low-ready. “I didn’t raise my gun because I was still hoping Martin could disarm him.”

When Chamberlain began charging toward Martin with a butcher knife in hand, Carelli testified he had but a second to decide whether to open fire. Concerned the sergeant “would be seriously hurt or killed,” Carelli raised his weapon.

The sergeant yelled out, “Knife, knife, knife!,” Carelli testified, which, he said, led him to believe Martin had been stabbed.

“At that point, I had no other option,” Carelli testified. “…All I could do was save Sgt. Martin’s life.”

Carelli is on administrative leave and plans to retire due to post-traumatic stress related to the incident. During his 13 years on the force, Chamberlain’s apartment was the only place he ever fired his gun in the line of duty, Carelli testified.

He wants to leave police work because the thought of being placed in another situation that could lead to the use of force “is horrifying,” Carelli told jurors Monday afternoon. And what happened that morning is something he “thinks of every day.”

Randolph McLaughlin, one of the Chamberlain family's lawyers, peppered Martin with questions about the sequence of events and the movement of everyone inside the apartment building lobby and the apartment itself.

"It was a very fast and evolving situation," Martin responded multiple times as McLaughlin asked about how the officers forced their way into Chamberlain's apartment.

Martin said Chamberlain thrust a knife through the doorway as officers broke down the door. Martin said Chamberlain told officers, "First one through the door, I'm going to take him with me."

McLaughlin questioned whether Chamberlain truly could have been unfazed by four beanbag rounds, noting White Plains Police Department training materials that claim a fired beanbag is more powerful than a punch from boxer Mike Tyson.

Chamberlain's family filed the lawsuit after a grand jury declined to indict any of the officers involved in the incident.

The family has accused officers of using racial slurs to taunt Chamberlain, an African-American, but the judge ruled that Chamberlain's lawyers cannot mention the slurs, saying that Carelli should not be held responsible for any such comments made by other officers that day.

"It's very difficult," Chamberlain's son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., said outside the courthouse today during a break in testimony. "This is the first time I've ever seen him [Carelli] in five years since my father was killed. I have nothing to say to him, other than, 'Why did you shoot my father when you didn't have to?' "

The trial resumes Tuesday, with testimony expected from the county medical examiner’s office, as well as from White Plains police officer Stephen Demchuk, who also responded to the call that day.

McLaughlin said he hopes the jury will get the case by the end of the week.

Twitter: @MattSpillane