Police Cleared of Wrongdoing in the Killing of African-American Man; U.S. Unemployment Falls to 8.1 Percent
O'BRIEN: The family of a 68-year-old veteran who was killed by a police officer say that they're going to send letters today demanding a federal investigation into the case. The officer who shot Kenneth Chamberlain was cleared yesterday by a grand jury in White Plains, New York. It all started when the former marine triggered his medical alert pendant. An ambulance responded, the police too. There was a confrontation that lasted more than an hour with Mr. Chamberlain, and he got more and more agitated. The police ended up breaking down the door. They tasered him at first, but eventually, they shot and killed him. Take a look.</s>O'BRIEN (voice-over): The alarm rang in at 5:00 a.m. on a cold morning. A 68-year-old Vietnam vet with a severe heart condition had set off his medical alert device, but instead of an ambulance, police arrived at Kenneth Chamberlain's apartment. Neighbors saw guns drawn, a riot shield.</s>WILBERT JOHNSON, NEIGHBOR: They stated that if he didn't come open the door, they were going to knock it down.</s>O'BRIEN: His niece who lived upstairs told police at the scene he'd set off the alarm accidentally, to please let his family talk to him.</s>TONYA GREENHILL, CHAMBERLAIN'S NIECE: I just kept hearing my uncle respond, "Please leave me alone, go away, I didn't call you, I don't need your help."</s>O'BRIEN: Chamberlain and the police were being recorded by the alert device.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, SR.: I'm OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need to see that you're OK and then we'll go.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, SR.: No, you leave.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't leave.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, SR.: You leave.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You called us. I can't leave.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, SR.: You leave.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR., VICTIM'S SON: You hear one officer use an expletive and that's when he said he didn't give an "f," used the "n word."</s>O'BRIEN: But there's more. A district attorney showed the family two videos in their custody, one from a hallway security camera, another recorded by a camera on a taser gun.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, SR.: Shoot me. Go on. Shoot me. Shoot me. Go on. Shoot me. Shoot me.</s>O'BRIEN: Police say Chamberlain threatened them with knives.</s>DAVID CHONG, PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER, WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK: We're obligated as a police department never to walk away from an emergency. And we're not going to.</s>O'BRIEN: So then they fired two real bullets.</s>JANET DIFIORE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK: There were civilian witnesses, there were police witnesses, there were expert witnesses, 100 exhibits went before that jury, and in this case most of this event was captured on audio or videotape. All of that information was before the people who made the determination in this case. After due deliberation on the evidence presented in this matter, the grand jury found that there was no reasonable cause to vote an indictment.</s>O'BRIEN: The district attorney said they will fully review the use of force against emotionally disturbed people by the police. The city is also going to conduct its own independent review. Mr. Chamberlain's son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. joins us this morning. Our condolences. We should also mention that your attorney is with you as well this morning. It's nice to see both you gentlemen. Let's begin with you, Ken, if I may. You told me yesterday that you were saddened but you were not surprised. Why were you not surprised?</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN JR.: Well, I'm not surprised because if you look at the history in Westchester County, there have been a number of questionable police shootings, and all of them have come back cleared. I'm speaking about the Detective Ridley Case as well as the college student D.J. Henry, and now this situation with my father. And I've stated from the beginning that I thought it would be a conflict of interest, especially when the Westchester county D.A.'s office works very closely with the White Plains police department, and Janet Difiore (ph) herself is a member of the chiefs association. So why would I think that she had would indict a police officer?</s>O'BRIEN: When you listen to the tapes, it sounds like your father is getting more and more agitated and the cops are, I guess the word I'd use, are pushing him a bit. The district attorney confirmed for us that in fact the "n" word was on these tapes. Here's what the D.A. said.</s>DIFIORE: The police officer was at a rear window and he was attempting to distract Mr. Chamberlain. At that time he uttered a racial epithet and that was caught on audio tape.</s>O'BRIEN: So when you hear, I guess, the mocking and the "n" word that a police officer is using towards your dad, that's just got to break your heart.</s>KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN JR.: It does, and it's very hard for me to look at the video again, to listen to the audio. And for them to use the "n" word and they don't deny using it and there's been no disciplinary action. I mean, it makes you wonder. I would like to see their policy and procedure that says that it's OK to use the "n" word on an individual before shooting and killing him.</s>O'BRIEN: The attorney in the case, the officers say they removed a knife from Mr. Chamberlain Sr. And all the while we can hear him on tape saying shoot me, shoot me, and he's cursing. Talk to me about his mental state.</s>RANDALL MCLAUGHLIN, ATTORNEY, NEWMAN FERRARA LLP: After an hour to an hour and a half of these officers abusing him, calling him names, threatening him, mocking him, he becomes agitated. And there is some indication, though it's not clear on the video and not clear on the audio that there was some metal object here. Here's the bottom line, at no time during this entire incident, when the door was down, when the door was up did Mr. Chamberlain leave his apart and threaten anyone. This was a tragedy caused by the white plains police department, their lack of professionalism. The fact that an officer is using the "n" word in an African-American community, there's absolutely no excuse for that behavior.</s>O'BRIEN: Ultimately as the commissioner said this the piece that we ran, he said the police are obligated to not walk away from an emergency, but not walking away versus killing the person who called for help in the emergency seems like an absolute compounded tragedy. I want to thank you both for joining us. Again, our condolences to you and thanks for being with us this morning.</s>CHAMBERLAIN: Thank you.</s>O'BRIEN: We've got some breaking news coming into CNN. The unemployment rate is dropping. Christine Romans will join us with the April jobs report number straight ahead.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. Yes, 8.1 percent is the unemployment rate, Soledad and you had 115,000 jobs created in the month of April. So 115,000 jobs compares with an estimate of 160,000, so we're a little light on how many jobs were created. But that is good news that the unemployment rate ticked down. Another unemployment rate that ticked down as well, black unemployment fell a full percentage point to 13 percent. That compares to 7.4 percent for white -- the white demographic, but still that was a move lower there. Men and women are about the same, 7.5 percent for men and 7.4 percent for women. A couple of things to tell you about. We noticed job creation had been slowing down here, but we do know February and march were revised upward so we had better job creation, 50,000 more jobs created in these two months than we had thought. You saw professional business services hiring, retail hiring again, manufacturing. Transportation and warehousing is where we lost some jobs. So no real explanation overall about why. I want to show you politically why this is so important too. This is what the story will be on the campaign trail because Mitt Romney has been saying that we've had record eight percent unemployment for 38 months. That's true. The president has been saying we have 4.1 million jobs created in the private sector over the past 25 months. That's true as well. Both of those statements are true, but now it becomes a big political game about how we're doing since this big jobs drought, how we are doing in creating jobs. We really had 115,000 jobs created right here. Again, all of this is a weak recovery, post-recession recovery. You want to see more job growths than this, but it has been slow and steady and it continues.</s>O'BRIEN: That's a graphic that's particularly impressive, especially in an election year. Christine, thank you very much. We've been talking about the triple crown of horse racing known for its three jewels and the three drinks that go along with those three jewels. This morning we're learning how to make the original drinks for each race. We've done the mint julep for the Kentucky derby, the black-eyed Susan for the Preakness, and now the Belmont breeze. James Conley is back, a mixologist. What's the breeze, what's in it?</s>JAMES CONLEY, MIXOLOGIST: It's a mix of rye whiskey, cranberry juice, lemon juice. This is a perfect one to pre-batch for a party. It serves around five to six. Serve it over half crushed ice and half regular ice, a very light drink, great for the summertime. Go ahead and garnish that with a wheel of lemon. Get that on there right. Throw a fresh strawberry in there. And in honor of mint julep, the original trip crown cocktail, get a nice, big sprig of mint and throw it in there.</s>O'BRIEN: I like it. We'll see how it tastes on the commercial break. Still ahead on "starting point," can't a kid have a cupcake anymore? The very latest thing to go in the battle over childhood obesity. You're watching STARTING POINT. We're back in just a moment.