Who is Kevin Dave? What we know about Seattle cop who fatally struck Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula

Earlier this year, Kevin Dave, a Seattle police officer, struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula, an Indian exchange graduate student at Northeast University. The incident, which occurred in January 2023, has now sparked outrage after recently released bodycam audio showed the responding officer’s careless remarks at the scene.

At the time of the incident on January 23, 2023, Officer Kevin Dave was responding to a report of an overdose when he hit the student who was crossing the street. Officer Dave was reportedly driving at a speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone, and the police sirens were sporadically activated, in this violating standard police procedure norms.

However, in bodycam footage released on Monday by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer, a drug-recognition expert, who was called to the scene to evaluate whether Officer Kevin Dave was impaired when he struck the student, laughed about the deadly crash. Auderer said that the victim's life had “limited value” and the city should just write a check for $11,000. Auderer also dismissed any implication that Dave was liable in the incident.

However, Kevin Dave’s Bodycam footage from the night showed him speeding while only intermittently activating the sirens when responding to a call of an overdose.

---

Bodycam video shows Kevin Dave speeding before striking pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula

Kevin Dave is a 35-year-old officer, who has been employed in the Seattle police department since 2020. On January 23, 2023, Dave, driving at a speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone, struck and killed pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula while she was crossing the road in South Lake Union.

Dave confessed that Jaahnavi Kandula was at the crosswalk when he fatally struck her after he failed to slow down on the spot. The Bodycam footage that captured the incident showed Dave notifying other officers about the accident before disembarking from the patrol car and immediately administering CPR, in an attempt to save the victim's life.

Shortly after, multiple officers arrived at the scene, and Dave recounted that the victim carelessly ran across the crosswalk despite seeing his patrol car barreling down the road.

However, in July 2023, following the department’s investigation into the incident, Dave admitted his error and said “I f**ked up”. In another body cam footage, Kevin said:

“I can have a hundred minutes. I could have…there’s nothing for me to do right now, but sit. And that is the f–king worst thing that…you just have to sit here. So many questions that are unanswered, so many questions.”

---

Kevin Dave, who is still employed at the Seattle police department, has not faced any criminal charges in the incident. The department said that in the wake of the recently released Bodycam audio that showed responding officer Daniel Auderer laughing at the deadly crash, the case was under investigation before the Office of Police Accountability.

The victim, Jaahnavi Kandula, pursuing her Master's degree in Information Technology, had traveled from India to study at Northeastern University. According to her family, Kandula was a brilliant student who was raised by a single mother working as a teacher in India.