In Autumn 2023, we reported the story of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old master’s student at Northeastern University (Seattle) who died after being run over by a police officer in January 2023. In addition to his history of driving offences, Officer Kevin Dave had hit Jaahnavi on a pedestrian crossing whilst he was driving above the speed limit. On 11th September 2023, Seattle police released bodycam footage showing Officer Daniel Auderer (vice president of Seattle Police Officers Guild who was called to investigate the incident) laughing and making fun of the incident by saying Jaanhavi had “limited value” and hence “write a cheque for $11,000”.
On February 21, 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office in King County (Washington State) made the decision to not file a criminal charge against Kevin Dave. The Prosecutor concluded that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dave had acted with recklessness or criminal negligence, as per State law. The injustice that Jaahnavi’s family are experiencing bears similarity to the case of another innocent Hindu – Sureshbhai Patel. In 2015 Sureshbhai was left paralyzed after being violently assaulted by a police officer for no valid reason when he was walking near his home in Alabama. Charges against the officer were dropped due to “lack of sufficient evidence.”.