Death of Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, from India, ignited outrage after fellow officer was recorded making ‘appalling’ remarks about case
Prosecutors in Washington state said on Wednesday they will not file felony charges against a Seattle police officer who struck and killed a graduate student from India while responding to an overdose call – a case that attracted widespread attention after another officer was recorded making callous remarks about it.
Officer Kevin Dave was driving 74mph (119km/h) on a street with a 25mph (40km/h) speed limit in a police SUV before he hit 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk on 23 January 2023.
In a memo to the Seattle police department on Wednesday, the King county prosecutor’s office noted that Dave had on his emergency lights, that other pedestrians reported hearing his siren, and that Kandula appeared to try to run across the intersection after seeing his vehicle approaching. She might also have been wearing wireless earbuds that could have diminished her hearing, they noted.
For those reasons, a felony charge of vehicular homicide was not warranted. “There is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Dave was consciously disregarding safety,” the memo said.
I’ve seen this in the way that police drive in my city compared to other emergency responders.
About two years ago, there was an incident in a town south of me that required the strategic response unit or whatever term they are calling themselves. On my way home from work I see some huge police vehicles start coming down the highway behind me, so I pull over. But this is an 8-lane highway in town, at an intersection that is red so there isn’t a lot of room for everyone to pull over.
Usually when this happens (this is the main highway/road through town, and the ambulances need to use it all the time) the emergency vehicle will slowly weave its way through traffic, as people who couldn’t pull over the the side of the road made space however they could. If that means driving on the wrong side of the road for 100 metres, they will.
These ‘specially trained’ police officers however, came to a complete stop multiple times behind vehicles, then starting blaring their horns to make the vehicles move even when there wasn’t really a spot they could move to. These cops refused to drive in any other lane other than the left most lane.
The next day an article came out, saying that the incident was resolved without this special unit because they didn’t get there in time.