A Chicago police officer facing criminal charges over an allegedly unprovoked attack on a woman and man has been fired for a separate on-duty beating just a month earlier.
The 9-0 decision by the mayor-appointed Chicago Police Board to discharge Officer Brett Kahn was noteworthy in part because two other officers did not back up Kahn’s account of how the confrontation unfolded.
That was among several factors cited by the Police Board in finding that Kahn used “excessive and unreasonable force” in striking victim Lamont Powell on his face on a West Side street in June 2014.
The Police Board also found credible the testimony of a medical expert who concluded that the injuries suffered by Powell “were consistent with blunt-force trauma caused by a (closed) fist,” contrary to Kahn’s claim that he struck him with an open hand.
Photos of Powell’s facial injuries — including two black eyes, a swollen lip, facial scrapes and swelling, as well as a fracture to a bone by his nose — also played a role in the dismissal.