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 agree with the verdict that vehicular homicide isn’t warranted, in this case where the Indian women actually ran into the intersection while an emergency vehicle was oncoming. That definitely shows it wasn’t a callous act on the part of the driver - but I do think there needs to be some kind of fine or penalty for the fellow officer who made it sound like her death was of no consequence. That is the real crime here.
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.
She was in a crosswalk, where drivers are expected to be aware of pedestrians, and the cop was going so fast, that she likely had little to no time to react.
75mph means that you cover 110 feet per second, that’s 10 feet in a literal blink.
A car approaching at that speed is effectively impossible to judge as a pedestrian.
Additionally, the cop was only chirping his sirens, making it even harder to place his location and speed and she had the right of way as a pedestrian, so in the 10 seconds or so it takes to cross a crosswalk, the cop car can silently (because again, he was not appropriately using his sirens) come from completely invisible, to being in the crosswalk.
There is no justification for the cops actions in this scenario, his negligent behavior cost one life and ultimately delayed the care of someone else.
Believe whatever you want, I couldn’t care less.