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.
The one that makes it sound like the kitchen sink is the headphones, the others pretty clearly paint it as her carelessness, if true. It sounds like she wasn’t really paying attention or looking while crossing the road, saw the car and ran. Meanwhile the officer could have also seen her and tried to avoid, unfortunately running into each other, like two people walking towards each other moving the same way to try and avoid.
The article says “appeared” but I think that’s less of an uncertainty and more the technical language employed, like how a newspaper calls someone “an alleged criminal”. The video itself may be far more clear cut - without seeing that I’d reserve judgement.
74mph in a 25mph sounds excessive, though, especially for a police officer responding to what should be primarily a medical emergency.
Your answer reads the most reasonably here IMO. I have crossed a road at a run to beat an approaching car before, and had I been struck it definitely would’ve been my fault for not practicing proper safety. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. A crappy situation all around, though, and I wish that other cop who made those dumb remarks would face some consequences for being so callous.
I’m with you on this, however, the speed of the cop is an issue. At three times the speed limit, an approaching car would reach you much faster than you would expect it too. This girl may have glanced, seen the cop in the distance, and never realized how fast he was going. Frankly, if an emergency responder if taking an action this far outside the norm, they should also be taking great care because innocent bystanders cannot be expected to anticipate the responders actions.
Police are trained to drive at faster speeds for obvious reasons, but even they need to limit such higher speeds to the same constraint of reaction and vehicle performance times. I’ll be positive and give the benefit of the doubt that he did try to avoid hitting her once he saw her (if he saw her at all), but I can’t imagine anyone being able to react nor slow or swerve in such a setting if it was like most 25 mph zones I know of. People speed through our 25 mph subdivision at 35-40 mph and I’m just waiting for the day someone gets clipped.
I absolutely reserve judgment. It sounds like a brief investigation to come to the conclusion they wanted, but that doesn’t mean that’s the case. It could be just a tragic accident.
It’s obviously an accident. The issue is it was a negligent accident. 75 in a 25 is an insane speed. It’s his job to get to the scene quickly, it’s not his job to endanger the public while doing so.
The fucking military takes more care around foreigners than American cops do around Americans. I’m sick of them getting away with this bullshit. And I’m sick of no one doing any about the intentionally destructive training they get.