Silicon Valley NAACP chief involved in search for suspected cop killer.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Like many people, Rick Callender viewed this week's police manhunt for the alleged killer of a San Jose cop as a volatile situation. But Callender, executive director of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP chapter, reached an unusual conclusion: That he was just the person to defuse it.

That conclusion led Callender into the middle of an abortive, Wednesday night effort to convince killing suspect DeShawn Campbell to give himself up. The effort failed, but Callender doesn't regret what he did. He still considers himself a potential "safe passage for this young man to turn himself in" _ because of his own bitter experience with what he called racial profiling by the San Jose police.

"Because of what happened to me, almost no one could be a better choice," said Callender, "I'm a black man who knows what it feels like to be profiled. But this time, the police are legitimately looking for a young, average-looking, African-American male suspect. In terms of someone who can bring the leadership of the NAACP, and also the sensitivity of personal experience, no one understands this situation the way I do."

As a huge manhunt continued Thursday for the man police say gunned down ...