The Seattle police officer who struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula, an Indian student from Hyderabad, while responding to an overdose call, will not face any criminal charges due to a “lack of sufficient evidence”, the authorities said. The King County Prosecutor’s Office said they will not move forward with criminal charges against Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave. “After staffing this case with senior deputy prosecuting attorneys and office leadership, I have determined that we lack sufficient evidence under Washington state law to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion said in a statement.
The decision comes nearly 13 months after Kandula’s death, which sparked international condemnation. Kandula, 23, was struck by a police vehicle driven by Officer Dave when she was crossing a street in a South Lake Union crosswalk in Seattle on January 23. He was driving 74 mph (more than 119 kmh) on the way to a report of a drug overdose call. Kandula was thrown 100 feet when she was struck by the speeding police patrol vehicle.
In bodycam footage released by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the deadly crash and dismissed any implication Dave might be at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary. Officer Daniel Auderer, who laughed and downplayed Kandula’s death, suggesting that her young life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check.”
Earlier, Officer Auderer claimed his joke that the city should “just write a check” was taken out of context during a private call he didn’t know was being recorded by his department-issued body camera.
Attorney Manion said, “Officer Auderer’s comments were also unprofessional and undermined the public’s trust in the Seattle Police Department and law enforcement in general.” The Attorney further stated that the bodycam footage did not imply that Dave might have been at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary.
“As egregious as Officer Auderer’s comments are, they do not change the PAO’s legal analysis into the conduct of Officer Dave. It is the Office of Police Accountability that bears the responsibility of disciplinary investigation and proceedings relating to Officer Auderer’s comment, not the PAO,” news agency PTI quoted in the statement.
As per local media reports, speed was the cause of the collision. Dave was responding to a “priority one” call at the request of the Seattle Fire Department, according to the Seattle Police Department.
The officer did not have his siren activated continuously. Instead, the officer “chirped” his siren at the intersection. He did have his emergency lights on, according to a previous statement from the police department.
Kandula was a graduate student at Northeastern University at the Seattle campus. The university said in January 2023 that they would award her degree posthumously and present it to her family.
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