VIJAYAWADA: Seattle police fired Kevin Dave, the officer who struck Jaahnavi Kandula, a student from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, with his car near a South Lake Union cross walk in Seattle, Washington, in January 2023. He is the second police officer to be fired in the Jaahnavi accident case. Earlier, Daniel Auderer, vice-president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, who was seen on body camera footage making fun of her death, was fired in July 2024.
According to Seattle police, interim Seattle police chief Sue Rahr, in an email sent to her employees, said she fired Dave after the Seattle office of police accountability found he had violated four department policies. The policies he failed to follow included using emergency lights for an emergency response and being responsible for safely operating a patrol vehicle.
Jaahnavi (23) died after she was struck by a police patrol vehicle in Seattle. She was hit just after 8pm on Jan 23, 2023. She was rushed to Harborview Medical Centre where she succumbed to her injuries.
In July 2023, body cam footage surfaced which showed Jaahnavi being struck while crossing the street and fatally run over by a Seattle police car driven by Kevin.
According to FOX 13 Seattle, in the body camera video, a loud rumble of the engine was heard as Kevin’s speedometer showed speeds of up to 74 mph, higher than the prescribed limits of 20 to 25 mph. Kevin was also heard saying “I f****d up” in the video and performing CPR on Jaahnavi after the accident.
Jaahnavi’s death drew international attention after an audio recording was published in Sept 2023 of officer Daniel Auderer laughing and downplaying her death, saying she had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check” for $11,000. Auderer was fired in July for his callous comments
Jaahnavi had completed her bachelor’s in computer applications in April 2019 and worked with a software company in Bengaluru for two years. She later moved to Seattle, in Sept 2021, to pursue a master’s in information systems at Northeastern University. She also worked part-time on her campus as an administrative and event support assistant.
US media reports in Feb 2024 had quoted King County prosecutors as saying that they would not file criminal charges against Dave because there was no evidence he was impaired or driving recklessly during the collision. The Seattle city attorney’s office issued Dave a $5,000 citation in March for second-degree negligent driving in the crash that killed Jaahnavi.
According to the Seattle police department, Kevin was on a “high priority one” call. The officer has been with the department since Nov 2019.