The King County Prosecutor’s Office will not move forward with criminal charges against Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave in the Jan. 2023 death of Jaahnavi Kandula.

Officer Kevin Dave hit and killed Kandula with his police cruiser while the 23-year-old student was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk on Jan. 23, 2023.

Dave was driving 74 miles an hour without continuously running his siren while responding to a drug overdose call, on a street with a speed limit of 25 miles an hour.

Months later, footage was released of Seattle Police Officers Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer joking about Kandula’s death over the phone with SPOG President Mike Solan.

In that recording, Auderer can be heard laughing as he referred to Kandula as “a regular person,” going on to say, “Just write a check – $11,000, she was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”

  • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
    12·
    9 months ago

    This isn’t mildly infuriating (and hence shouldn’t be here but whatever). This is fuel for completely justified rage.

    For there to be felony charges, prosecutors say they would have to prove that Officer Dave was consciously disregarding safety. They did have enough evidence to prove that in this case.

    In what world is it not a conscious disregard for safety to go 74 mph in a 25 mph zone? Is he not aware of his speed while he’s driving? Was he not aware of the speed limit? Was he not aware cars kill people, or how crosswalks work, or that there could be pedestrians around?

    I understand he was trying to save someone’s life also, but someone who gets tunnel vision like that in an emergency shouldn’t be in the business of saving people’s lives.

    You have to be present. You absolutely have to be paying attention to right here, right now when you’re driving, no matter how important the destination is.

    This is so sad. I hope she didn’t suffer much.