From [HERE] and [HERE] The city police officer who yelled "nigger" during the Nov. 19 standoff that ended with the death of a retired Black corrections officer and former Marine has been suspended without pay and now faces departmental disciplinary charges. Officer Steven Hart was presented with the charges Friday, Public Safety Commissioner David Chong said, and has until July 30 to respond. Chong would not say what the specific charges are, but said if found guilty he faces penalties ranging from a reprimand to dismissal from the police force. 

The shooting occurred in November after police responded to a call from the victim, Kenneth Chamberlain, who suffered from respiratory and heart problems, as he had set off his medical alert device, indicating he needed help. The encounter was recorded by audio and video devices. Transcripts from the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office of audio recordings reveal Officer Steven Hart as the officer who said to Chamberlain, “Stop, we have to talk nigger” before police broke down his door.

Earlier this month the Chamberlain family filed a $21 million federal lawsuit, claiming among other things that cops taunted the 68-year-old Chamberlain for more than an hour before breaking down his apartment door. Police, responding to an accidentally activated medical alarm device, said Chamberlain, who had been drinking, attacked them with a knife and a hatchet and threatened to kill them.

Although Chamberlain insisted that he was OK and did not need help, police demanded that he open his door so they could check on him. He refused and became agitated. On audio recorded by his medical alert device and a police stun gun, Chamberlain can be heard talking to the president, the Marines and others.

Eventually, police broke down his door and shot him with a stun gun and bean bags. Police said Chamberlain charged at them and was shot and killed by Officer Anthony Carelli when he was about to stab another officer.

Both Carelli and Hart are defendants in separate federal police brutality lawsuits stemming from earlier incidents.

In May, a Westchester County grand jury declined to file criminal charges against any of the eight officers involved in the Chamberlain case. The incident is now being reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department.

Rob Riley, president of the White Plains Police Benevolent Association, said he has not yet seen the charges against Hart and could not comment on them.

He did call into question the public announcement of the charges, "I find it peculiar that the city would release information about disciplinary charges to the media when information about internal discipline has never been released before."

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., who has attended several council meetings to demand that the officers involved be disciplined, called Hart's suspension "a step in the right direction."

"All of the officers should be brought up on charges and suspended," he said. "Hopefully, this is just the start, and not the end. Otherwise, Officer Hart is just being used as a scapegoat for the actions of all of the officers involved."

Hart's suspension "is entirely appropriate, based on his conduct and the things he said" said Mayo Bartlett, one of the attorneys representing the family of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. "It was conduct unbecoming an officer