New video release: Officer hits man in head with nightstick

Newly-released cellphone video shows a West Side officer restraining a woman — suspected of drinking in public — against a squad car before hitting a man in the head with a nightstick, all as an anxious crowd forms around police on a July 2014 night.

Officer Brett Kahn saw Lisa Simmons drinking out of a clear plastic cup shortly before midnight in the 1500 block of South Christiana on July 11, 2014, records show.

Kahn later determined Simmons to be drinking Remy Martin cognac and tried to put her under arrest, arrest reports state.

Video shows Kahn forcibly holding Simmons, 43, against a squad car as a gathering crowd voices its frustration with the police.

Arrest reports state Kahn believed Simmons was trying to run away.

After yelling for people to clear the street or risk going to jail, Kahn can be seen unfurling a nightstick and walking over to 30-year-old Jeremiah Smith, also in the street, and striking him in the head.

Kahn — who has four unsustained complaints of misconduct — believed Smith was trying to punch him.

“In fear of receiving a battery” Kahn “defended himself by using his impact weapon to disable the offender’s delivery system,” an arrest report said.

Kahn recovered a blackjack knife from Smith’s pants, the report said.