OPA: Seattle officer who hit, killed pedestrian in 2023 violated several policies

An independent investigation found that former Seattle police officer Kevin Dave, who hit and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in 2023, violated several department policies in the moments leading up to the fatal collision.

On Tuesday, Seattle's Office of Police Accountability released the closed case summary of their investigation into Ofc. Dave's alleged misconduct, which sustained four of five allegations. According to the report, Dave was found to have violated the following policies:

  • Employees must adhere to laws, city policy and department policy
  • Officers shall modify their emergency response when appropriate
  • Officers are responsible for the safe operation of their police vehicle
  • Officers use emergency lights for emergency response

The final policy violation — employees will strive to be professional — was dropped by investigators.

OPA investigators released the report Tuesday, but had actually finished it on Monday, sending it to interim Police Chief Sue Rahr with the recommendation that Dave be fired. Rahr fired Dave that same day.

jaahnavi kandula dashcam

Jaahnavi Kandula died after being hit by a Seattle Police Department patrol car. (File / FOX 13)

The death of Jaahnavi Kandula

23-year-old Kandula was a graduate student from India studying at Northeastern University's campus in Seattle.

On Jan. 23, 2023, Dave was responding to a high-priority overdose call, and was driving 74 mph down Dexter Avenue, a street with a speed limit of 25 mph. Dave had his police lights on, but was only "chirping" his siren, rather than running it continuously.

Kandula was walking at a crosswalk on Dexter Ave and Thomas St, and appeared on dashcam video trying to hurry across the street before Dave struck her and threw her body 138 feet.

The King County Prosecutor's Office declined to file charges against Dave in Feb. 2024, believing they lacked sufficient evidence to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt. The Seattle Police Department then referred an infraction of second-degree negligent driving to the City Attorney's Office, and Dave was fined $5,000.

In Sept. 2024, Kandula's family filed a wrongful death, negligence and assault lawsuit against the city of Seattle and Dave.

jaahnavi kandula dashcam

(File / FOX 13)

The allegations

OPA investigated allegations that Dave violated department policies in the moments leading up to the fatal collision.

According to their findings, Dave was driving with a Washington State driver's license listed as "surrendered out-of-state." Dave previously worked in Arizona, and had a valid driver's license issued there just months before the Jan. 2023 crash.

Officials learned Dave also had a prior collision on his record from Sept. 14, 2021. In that case, Dave was responding to a call with his emergency lights on, but no siren. A board ruled that Dave "failed to clear an intersection and caused a preventable collision."

Officials found that Dave failed to drive "with due regard for the safety of all persons," even if he did not possess the "aggravated kind of negligence or carelessness" required for criminal charges, which city and county prosecutors declined to file after the crash. Dave was driving nearly three times the speed limit in a dense urban area, on a narrow street with visible sidewalks, pedestrian crossing signs and an obstructed view, investigators determined.

Given these circumstances, investigators also sustained that Dave did not "modify [his] emergency response." This would include slowing down or running his siren continuously, rather than speeding down a 25 mph street and chirping the siren.

"Although [Dave] was responding to a high-priority call and could aid the overdosed subject, driving nearly triple the speed limit at that time and location was unjustified—particularly when speeding generally results in relatively negligibly faster arrival times," reads the OPA report. "While OPA appreciates [Dave]’s desire to reach and possibly aid the overdosed subject, endangering others to get there violated this policy."

Investigators thirdly determined that Dave operated his vehicle unsafely and in contrast to SPD's policy that "the preservation of life is the highest priority."

Lastly, they determined that, while officers are not expressly required to run a siren continuously while emergency driving, given Dave's speed of 74 mph down a narrow arterial, a continuous siren would be warranted to warn others of the "inherent danger of [Dave's] driving outside standard traffic patterns."

The fifth allegation, "employees will strive to be professional," stemmed from the perception that Dave's actions undermined public trust. OPA investigators found this allegation "duplicative," as it was sufficiently covered by the other four allegations.

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