Footage from the aftermath of Seattle Police officer Kevin Dave fatally striking graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk as Dave was responding to a drug overdose call (via YouTube screengrab/KING). Inset: Kandula (via GoFundMe).
The police officer who fatally struck a college student while driving almost three times the speed limit was charged Friday with a traffic infraction, according to local articles out of Seattle, Washington.
Prosecutors said that there’s no evidence that Officer Kevin Dave was impaired or driving recklessly when hitting Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, reported The Seattle Times. They previously said there would be no criminal case.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office previously said that there’s not enough evidence to show that Dave was driving “consciously disregarding safety,” according to Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO.
“Even if prosecutors could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a uniformed police officer traveling at 74 mph in response to a legitimate emergency call in a fully marked patrol car with lights and sirens was negligent, negligent driving does not meet the legal threshold for felony criminal charges under Washington State law,” they said.
Dave was going 74 mph in a 25 hour speed limit on Jan. 23, 2023, while on his way to an overdose call. Meanwhile, Kandula, a master’s degree student in information systems at the local Northeastern University, was walking westbound on Thomas Street at Dexter Avenue North. Construction barriers and an angled sidewalk reportedly blocked her view of northbound traffic. Then she reached the crosswalk.
Dave hit his breaks a second before striking her, but was going 63 mph during the collision, officers reportedly said.
“He was going 74 in a 25 mph zone,” Raymond Mitchell with the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said, according to KOMO in a Feb. 23 report after the prosecution decided not to pursue a criminal case. “He did not have lights or sirens fully on she was on a lit crosswalk, and she was struck and killed. He was speeding and he hit an innocent civilian on a crosswalk. Anyone else would be in jail, and he is still working as a cop.”
The case caught national attention in part because body cam footage surfaced in which Det. Daniel Auderer, a vice president of the police guild, a vice president of the police guild, laughed about Kandula’s death while on the phone with another officer.
“Initially he said she was in a crosswalk,” Auderer is heard saying. “There’s a witness who said ‘no she wasn’t.’ I don’t think she was thrown 40 feet. I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car.”
“But she is dead,” said Auderer, who then started laughing, apparently over something Solan said in response.
Auderer continues to laugh in a back-and-forth with Solan.
“Yeah just write a check….11 thousand dollars. She was 26, she had limited value.”
In an interview with internal investigators in the report obtained by conservative radio host Jason Rantz of KTTH, Auderer said his comments needed more context. He said he was not mocking Kandula’s death rather the city’s attorneys who may have to negotiate a settlement with her family’s lawyers should a lawsuit be filed.
“I responded with something like: ‘She’s 26 years old. What value is there? Who cares?’ I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers. I was imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment,” Auderer said, according to the report. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.”
He also told investigators he “lamented” the death but understood how people would consider him being insensitive by watching the body cam footage.
Seattle police commanders reportedly recommended last month that he either receive a suspension or get fired. Auderer can answer the recomendation at a hearing set for Monday.
David Harris contributed to this report.
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