Seattle Police Department Fires Officer who Killed Jaahnavi Kandula While Speeding his Cruiser in Crosswalk 

Kevin Dave, the Seattle police officer who killed Jaahnavi Kandula, a student from India, in a crosswalk while speeding in his cruiser in January 2023, has been fired. In announcing the long-awaited decision on Jan. 6, interim Seattle police Chief Sue Rahr said the Seattle Office of Police Accountability found he had violated four department policies, The Seattle Times reported. They include failure “to follow include using emergency lights for an emergency response and being responsible for safely operating a patrol vehicle,” the publication said. 

While Rahr believes Dave “did not intend to hurt anyone that night,” as he was trying to get to an emergency, she said she “cannot accept the tragic consequences of his dangerous driving,”The Seattle Times report said. “His positive intent does not mitigate the poor decision that caused the loss of a human life and brought discredit to the Seattle Police Department,” she added. 

The decision comes nearly two years Dave struck Kandula on Jan. 23, 2023, as she was walking in the crosswalk from east to west,  while responding to a priority one call. According to The Seattle Times, the department defined such a call as “one that is the highest priority and involves a threat to life.” She was found suffering from life-threatening injuries at the scene, where officers performed CPR while they waited for the fire department to arrive. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition where she later died. She was a student at the Seattle campus of Northeastern University at the time. She was awarded her post graduate degree posthumously. 

An investigation showed that Dave was going triple the speed limit at 74 mph as he headed to an overdose call on Jan. 23, 2023, The Seattle Times reported. As he approached Thomas Street at Dexter Avenue North, dashboard camera video showed Kandula crossing the street in front of the officer. Kandula had the right of way at the time of the collision. Investigators later determined that Dave tried to avoid the collision by slowing down, but Kandula was still hit at 63 mph. According to the investigation, Dave did not have his siren activated at the time of the collision. Instead, the officer “chirped” his siren at the intersection, but he did have his emergency lights on.

Dave’s employment with the Seattle Police Department hung in the balance for nearly two years. In February 2024, King County prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges against Dave because there was no evidence he was impaired or driving recklessly in the Jan. 23, 2023, collision. The Seattle City Attorney’s Office issued Dave a $5,000 citation in March for second-degree negligent driving.

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Kandula’s death, which sparked international condemnation after officer Daniel Auderer, who was not involved in the collision but was present at the scene, mocked and downplayed her death. He said her young life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check.” Auderer, who was pulled from patrol in September 2023 and reassigned to a “non-operational position,”was fired in July last year. Although he acknowledged that his words were “hurtful” and that he was “horrified to know what they meant to the young woman’s family,” Rahr concluded that his “cruel and callous laughter” and the pain inflicted on Kandula’s family could not be outweighed by his good reputation among his fellow officers and his years of service to the community,” The Seattle Times noted. Auderer has been an officer since 2009.

Meanwhile, Kandula’s family had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in King County Superior Court against the city and Dave, alleging that Kandula experienced “severe emotional distress, pain and suffering before dying from her injuries,” The Seattle Times reported. The family is seeking damages  $110 million, plus $11,000. The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in September.