Tag: Jaahnavi Kandula

Police, public safety

Jaahnavi Kandula’s Family Sues City for $110 Million Plus $11,000, In Direct Reference to Officer’s Callous Comments

photo of Jaahnavi Kandula

Kandula, a 23-year-old student, was struck and killed by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave last year.

By Andrew Engelson

Attorneys for the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck and killed in a South Lake Union crosswalk by a Seattle Police Department officer traveling 74 miles an hour, filed a lawsuit this afternoon against the city of Seattle and SPD officer Kevin Dave for more than $110 million. In the claim, filed in King County Superior Court today, attorneys wrote that Kandula “experienced terror, severe emotional distress, and severe pain and suffering before dying.”

The sizable figure —$110 million, plus $11,000—is a direct reference to the callous comments made by SPD officer Daniel Auderer shortly after the fatal collision.

Auderer, the vice chairman of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, had been called to the scene to investigate Dave for signs of intoxication. Caught on body cam video in conversation with police union leader Mike Solan, Auderer joked and laughed about Kandula’s death, saying, “Just write a check. $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.”

Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr fired Auderer in July. In response, he filed a $20 million tort claim against the city for “wrongful termination.”

“It is absolutely abhorrent to get on the phone and laugh about anyone’s death,” attorney Vonda Sargent told PubliCola.  “He’s suing for $20 million, so I guess he thinks the value of his life is far greater than the value of Jaahnavi’s.”

The figure, if awarded by a jury, would represent the largest personal injury claim ever against the city of Seattle. The highest award paid out by the city was in 2016, when the city and its insurers paid $65.7 million to the family of an attorney who was struck and severely injured by a Seattle fire truck.

The city attorney’s office and SPD both declined to comment on the lawsuit.

PubliCola reached out to the mayor’s office on Friday afternoon and will update this article with their response.

Kandula, a 23-year-old engineering student from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, was crossing Dexter Avenue at Thomas Street when she was killed on the evening of January 23, 2023. The legal complaint was filed by Kandula’s mother and father, Vijaya Laksmi Gundapuneedi and Sreekanth Kandula, who both live in India. 

“It is absolutely tragic. I don’t think that they’ll ever get over it,” Sargent said of Kandula’s parents. “Your first-born child is gone forever. Parents are not supposed to bury their children.”

The claim notes that “[a]s a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ negligent conduct, Plaintiff Kandula sustained extreme pain and suffering after being slammed into by Defendant Dave’s speeding patrol vehicle traveling up to 70 MPH,” the lawsuit says. The claim also notes that Kandula’s parents “continue to endure severe emotional distress as a result of their daughter’s death.”

In March, Sargent and attorney Susan Mindenbergs, working for family members representing Kandula’s estate, filed a tort claim—also for $110 million plus $11,000—with the Seattle City Attorney’s office. According to the claim, the family sought damages for wrongful death, “loss of familial consortium” (emotional, non-economic losses due to the loss of a family member), and negligent planning and construction of the crosswalk and street infrastructure at Dexter and Thomas, where Kandula was struck.

Dave struck and killed Kandula while driving to assist the Seattle Fire Department, which was responding to a call from a South Lake Union resident who said he was “freaking out” after taking cocaine. Though Dave turned on his signal lights, the filing notes that Dave only “chirped” his siren while going through red lights and “failed to activate his patrol vehicle siren before approaching the intersection of Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street.” 

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Sargent said that officer Dave had no reason to exceed 70 mph on this particular call. “It was unnecessary,” she said, “because the urgency of it had already passed.”

She also said Dave’s high speed wasn’t necessary. “The difference in speed with him going 35 or 40 miles per hour and 74—the time he’s ‘making up’ is negligible,” Sargent said. “It’s not as though doing 74 miles an hour is going to get you there 15 minutes sooner.”

The lawsuit also says that Dave “was driving with one hand on the steering wheel” just prior to hitting Kandula. 

The lawsuit notes that Dave was driving at least 70 mph in a 25 mph zone and that the force of the collision “caused Plaintiff Kandula to fly 136.99 feet before crashing into the roadway.” According to data from the Transport Research Laboratory, the fatality rate for crashes at 70 mph is close to 100 percent.

Though a SPD police report on the collision noted that a “pedestrian’s expectations when crossing a street are that they will likely encounter traffic traveling at speeds near the posted speed limit,” Dave chose to drive nearly three times that limit. As PubliCola previously reported, Seattle Police Department’s emergency vehicle operations policies are extremely vague and give officers wide latitude in how and when they may break traffic laws when responding to a call, advising them to speed and run lights “only when the need outweighs the risk.”

The Kandula family’s lawsuit also notes that Dave did not have a valid Washington State drivers license, another detail PubliCola first reported.

Sargent said SPD was negligent on many levels, from hiring Dave to having vague guidelines for when police can speed to unsafe street design. “The people who are responsible for the care and safety of the citizenry should have at least the base level of care for the citizenry. That means being cautious when you drive. Having the requirements, all the qualifications for driving, like a license. And knowing that if you’re screaming up and down city streets that you’re likely to hit someone.”

In its complaint, attorneys for Kandula’s family allege that SPD “negligently hired Defendant Dave whose employment record included being terminated from the Tucson Police Department for numerous incidents of poor performance, bad judgment, and misconduct.”

The lawsuit directly refers to many details PubliCola has uncovered over the past year and a half about the collision and Dave’s history, including his firing by the Tucson Police Department and his “checkered history” there before SPD hired him in 2019.

TPD fired Dave in 2013 after numerous investigations, including one involving a “preventable collision” for which he was suspended right before being fired. 

“He should have never been hired,” Sargent said. “You can’t take just all comers. Everyone is not suited or fit to be a law enforcement officer.” Sargent said that the fact SPD knew about Dave’s troubled history and hired him anyway points to a systemic problem rather than the misconduct of one officer.

As we reported earlier this year, an SPD sergeant contacted Tucson police while investigating an incident in which Dave was seen “apparently filming the facilities” at an SPD training center in August 2020. The Tucson police told SPD about Dave’s history, including a troubling incident that occurred shortly after he was fired, when an officer pulled him over for speeding, Dave was pulled over by a Tucson police officer for speeding. 

According to a TPD report on that incident, Dave was “unable to stand still, he was talking very fast, and his pupils were dilated.” The officer filing the report suspected Dave appeared to be “possibly on some type of narcotic.”

In February, King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion declined to file felony charges against Dave, and City Attorney Ann Davison issued him a negligent driving traffic ticket with a $5,000 fine. Last month, PubliCola reported that Dave and his attorney are challenging that ticket in municipal court. 

The lawsuit also refers extensively to Seattle Department of Transportation’s planning and construction of pedestrian infrastructure and street design at and near the site of the collision. It notes that SDOT has delayed planned improvements at the intersection, as we noted in our initial report on the collision. 

“There are issues with that particular intersection,” Sargent said. “And then we learned that citizens were calling in about that intersection.”

The claim quotes from an SDOT customer service summary dated February 2023, that observed, “An Indian student died at the intersection of Dexter and Thomas on Jan 23rd. She was apparently hit by a police cruiser 4 weeks ago [at] the same intersection I requested to install new stop signs to avoid such accidents from happening.”

In addition, the lawsuit quotes from SPD detective Brett Schoenberg’s internal report on the incident, which stated “The speed at which Ofc. Dave was traveling did not allow Kandula or him sufficient time to detect, address and avoid a hazard that presented itself.”

The claim also notes that when investigating whether Dave was intoxicated, Auderer did not order a breathalyzer or blood test but only did a visual assessment of Dave.

Sargent said Kandula’s family plans to set up a foundation in Jaahnavi’s memory if a jury makes an award.

“I think most people can understand on some level, this sort of loss,” Sargent said. “You send your child to a foreign country to educate herself, to make herself better, to help the family, and she’s taken from you,” Sargent said.

“And then when she’s taken from you, it’s turned into an international joke. You have people laughing and guffawing about the loss of your daughter,” Sargent said.

“The family wants justice. They want some accountability. Because it should have never happened.”

Police

Kevin Dave, Officer Who Struck and Killed 23-Year-Old Student, is Challenging His Traffic Ticket
Seattle police officer Kevin Dave shortly after he struck and killed a 23-year-old student in a crosswalk.(SPD body camera footage)

By Andrew Engelson

Seattle police officer Kevin Dave, who struck and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023 while driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone, is challenging the traffic ticket issued to him in March for the fatal collision, according to Seattle Municipal Court records.

After the King County prosecutor declined in February to file criminal charges against Dave, the city attorney’s office issued Dave a citation for a second-degree negligent driving and a $5,000 fine. In May, the city attorney’s office reported that Dave, who is still employed by the Seattle Police Department, had failed to pay the $5,000 fine. 

According to the court docket, Dave is scheduled for a contested hearing in Seattle Municipal Court on September 24, with magistrate Noah Weil presiding. Dave and his attorneys apparently filed to contest the citation in May. 

Court spokesman Gary Ireland said that Dave (or his attorney) can choose to appear at his hearing either virtually or in-person in September. According to court documents, Dave is represented by Mark Conrad of Frey Buck, the firm that also represents former police chief Adrian Diaz. Frey Buck did not respond to PubliCola’s request for comment. 

In late July, SPD officer Daniel Auderer, who was fired by interim police chief Sue Rahr for joking and laughing about Kandula’s death, filed a $20 million tort claim against the city for “Personal reputation harm, wrongful termination, mental pain and suffering” because of the firing.

Auderer, who was vice president of Seattle Police Officers Guild, was caught on his body cam joking with SPOG president Mike Solan that Kandula’s life had “limited value.” In his tort claim, Auderer argued that “Seattle PD leaked false information concerning wrongfully initiated disciplinary proceedings as well as my personal information, including my home addresses. SPD then wrongfully terminated me. This was retaliatory at least due to my union leadership.”

Meanwhile, the Office of Police Accountability’s investigation into Dave and the fatal collision has been put on hold until the negligent driving civil case is resolved. The SPOG contract requires OPA to complete investigations within 180 days, although that clock is currently on pause pending the outcome of Dave’s challenge to his traffic citation.

Dave was hired by SPD in 2019. The department was aware that he’d been fired by the Tucson Police Department, where he had a troubled history.

In addition, court records indicate that when Seattle Police wrote the citation for negligent driving this past March, Dave still didn’t have a valid Washington driver’s license. PubliCola previously reported that for unknown reasons, Dave surrendered his license on November 18, 2021 because he “transferred out of state” and took an Arizona driver’s license, even though he worked for SPD at the time. According to Department of Licensing spokeswoman Christine Anthony, Dave did not have a valid Washington license on the date of the collision, January 23, 2023, and did not reinstate his Washington license until April 9, 2024, after the negligent driving citation was issued.

Police

Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr Fires Officer Who Joked About Death of 23-Year-Old Pedestrian

By Erica C. Barnett

Interim Seattle police chief Sue Rahr used a rare all-staff memo to announce her decision to fire police officer Daniel Auderer, whose laughter and jokes about the death of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula were caught on body camera footage last year.

Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was speaking to SPOG president Mike Solan when he made comments minimizing the incident, in which SPD officer Kevin Dave struck and killed Kandula in a crosswalk while driving 74 miles an hour, and joking that her life had “limited value.”

SPD general counsel Rebecca Boatright reported Auderer’s comments to the city’s Office of Police Accountability after coming across them while reviewing video related to the incident. OPA investigates police misconduct allegations and makes disciplinary recommendations, but the police chief has the ultimate say over how to discipline an officer. In Auderer’s case, OPA director Gino Betts recommended discipline ranging from a 270-day suspension to termination.

Auderer made his comments about Kandula shortly after interviewing Dave and determining that he was not intoxicated. During the call with Solan, he inadvertently turned on his body camera, which captured his side of the conversation.

“I don’t think she was thrown 40 feet either,” Auderer told Solan. “I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead.” Then Auderer laughed loudly at something Solan said. “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah.”

“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer continued. Then he laughed again for several seconds. “Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.” At this point, Auderer turned off his camera.

In explaining her decision, Rahr said she took into account the “impact” of Auderer’s statements, as opposed to the “intention.” Auderer and Solan have both claimed that they were engaging in a kind of gallows humor typical of police, and that they thought they were having a private conversation.

“I believe the impact of his actions is so devastating that it cannot be mitigated by his intent to keep his conversation private,” Rahr wrote. The hurt his words have inflicted on Ms. Kandula’s family cannot be erased. The actions this individual police officer have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the job of every police officer more difficult.

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Auderer is well-liked among his coworkers, and Rahr’s decision will almost certainly be unpopular among many in SPD’s rank and file. Rahr acknowledged that people in the department would probably be angry about her decision. But, she wrote, “It is my duty as the leader of this organization to uphold the high standards necessary to maintain public trust. For me to allow the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonor to the entire department. … I deeply regret the negative impact my decision has on him as an individual officer, who clearly loves his profession and his colleagues. But I have the duty and obligation to prioritize the good of the entire organization over an individual officer.”

Auderer’s callous remarks became international news, and have arguably prompted more widespread and vocal outrage than Kandula’s death itself.

Dave, who was fired by the Tucson Police Department and had a history of concerning incidents before SPD hired him in 2022, remains employed by SPD. Last month, Rahr told PubliCola she was looking at Dave’s case closely, along with Auderer’s, and would make a disciplinary decision when she knew all the facts.

Police

Decision on Discipline for Daniel Auderer, Police Union Leader Who Laughed Over Death of 23-Year-Old, Imminent

 

Also, SPD reassigns sergeant accused of sexual harassment and discrimination to a different division.

By Erica C. Barnett

Seattle Police Officers Guild vice-president Daniel Auderer, who was caught on tape joking about the killing of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula by a speeding officer last year, had his “Loudermill” hearing yesterday—an opportunity for public employees accused of misconduct to present their side of the story and answer any accusations against them. Auderer’s hearing was supposed to take place on April 1, but has been delayed at least twice since then. .

Seattle interim police chief Sue Rahr now has 21 days to make a decision about whether to discipline Auderer, and if so, what discipline to impose. The Office of Police Accountability has recommended discipline ranging from a 270-day suspension to termination.

Auderer has remained on duty, but in a non-patrol role, since last fall.

Last year, Auderer was driving away from the scene where officer Kevin Dave struck and killed Kandula when he inadvertently recorded a snippet of his conversation with SPOG president Mike Solan on his body-worn video. Dave was driving 74 miles an hour on Dexter Ave., where the speed limit is 25, when he struck and killed Kandula in a crosswalk. He had his lights on but had only “chirped” his siren at stop light down the street, and he was driving so fast that it was physically impossible for Kandula to get out of his way, according to a subsequent investigation of the collision.

On the tape, Auderer said he didn’t think there would be a need for a criminal investigation because Dave was “going 50 [mph]—that’s not out of control,” because Kandula may not have been in a crosswalk, and because Dave had “lights and sirens” on. Auderer also said he didn’t “think she was thrown 40 feet either.” All of these statements turned out to be incorrect. Dave also remains employed by SPD and did not face criminal prosecution for Kandula’s killing.

Then, in comments that were reported around the world, Auderer confirmed, “But she is dead,” laughed loudly at something Solan said, and responded, “No, it’s a regular person. Yeah.”

“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer continued. Then he laughed again for several seconds. “Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.” At this point, Auderer turned off his body camera and the recording stopped.

In a memo recommending a severe penalty, OPA wrote that Auderer had explained away his comments by claiming he and Solan were talking about the likelihood that the city’s attorneys would place a low “value” on Kandula’s life, with all the explicit discussion of attorneys happening on Solan’s unheard, and unrecorded, end of the call. “Even crediting your explanation as true, that does not excuse the callousness of your comments,” the OPA’s draft disciplinary report says.

Nor does it explain your full-bellied laughter. That you thought you were having a private conversation is not a mitigating factor – indeed, it made your commentary and laughter even more disturbing in the eyes of many, and confirmed for some their belief that Seattle Police Officers, however outwardly courteous they may be, entertain perverse ideas about community members, particularly when those community members are not white males.

In the past, the memo continued, SPD has fired officers for sending texts “showing biases towards women, lesbians, and people of color” and for referring to a Black community member as “Kunta Kinte.”

SPD confirmed the date of Auderer’s Loudermill hearing but did not provide any additional information about when Rahr will make her decision.

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In other SPD news, the department confirmed that Lt. John O’Neil, who has been accused of sexual harassment, retaliation, and gender discrimination, is no longer the head of the department’s communications office. Instead, SPD says, he has been moved to SPD’s criminal investigations department, where he will once again oversee women. As we reported earlier this year, all the staff who worked for O’Neil in the public affairs department quit or sought out other assignments in the department, including three women who took voluntary demotions to leave. Under O’Neil, the office became all male.

SPD maintains that it has always been the plan for O’Neil to transition out of the public affairs office, where the director has traditionally been a sergeant, not a lieutenant.

In a lawsuit against SPD and the city, four women have accused O’Neil of grooming, predatory behavior, retaliation, discrimination, and weaponizing the accountability process by filing frivolous complaints against his accusers with the OPA.

City Council, Mayor Harrell, Police, public safety

Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr: “We Have a Lot of Work to Do.”
Photo by Andrew Engelson

By Andrew Engelson

PubliCola police accountability reporter Andrew Engelson sat down with interim police chief Sue Rahr for an interview on Friday, one week after she replaced former police chief Adrian Diaz. Mayor Bruce Harrell announced he was removing Diaz as chief amid allegations of gender and racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against Diaz and others at SPD.

The interview took place at SPD headquarters the day after a student was shot and killed in the parking lot of Garfield High School. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Andrew Engelson: Let’s talk about the Garfield High School shooting first. Violence among youth, particularly gun violence in the Central District and South Seattle, has become a longstanding, intractable issue. What do you plan to do to address this problem?

Sue Rahr: What I’m doing now is getting out and talking to as many people as I can to find out how the relationship became so acrimonious—the relationship between the police and the community. I know there are many areas of the city where there’s a very strong, cohesive relationship. But I am recognizing that we have a lot of work to do. In the area of Capitol Hill, the Central Area, there are a lot of opportunities to rebuild there. I’m going to start out with listening. The challenge will be to find the right people, and I will get multiple different perspectives. I don’t want to go to a single community leader or a single group and assume that they speak for the whole community. I want to talk to as many different people from as many different perspectives as I can.

I met with officers at the East Precinct yesterday. I went to their roll call to get their perspective on how they feel about doing their job and policing. And I’ll be honest with you, it kind of broke my heart to hear how much they feel that they’re not embraced by the community. And this is a community that needs support and needs partnership, because we clearly have some public safety issues going on. The officers were—I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t want to say hurt, that sounds a little bit melodramatic. But they want to work with the community and they feel like the community is rejecting them.

“The officers were—I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t want to say hurt, that sounds a little bit melodramatic. But they want to work with the community and they feel like the community is rejecting them.”

AE: There’s some understandable skepticism.

SR: I completely understand that. What we have to figure out is how do we try to heal that relationship? At this point, there’s no constructive reason for me to try and figure out who’s responsible for what. The relationship needs mending. I’ve got to make connections with the people that are in a position to help us heal. This horrible tragedy yesterday, it’s just so incredibly sad. I hope that maybe we can use that as a starting point to say: We owe this to our children. The police cannot do it alone. And the community can’t do it alone. We’ve got to do it together. So we’ve got to find a way to heal. I don’t have the answer yet. But I’m going to be asking a lot of questions and I’m sure we’ll get ideas from people.

AE: I’m hearing that there are also going to be increased patrols in that area.

SR: I want to be really clear about those increased patrols. We’re not talking about coming in gangbusters or that we’re going to start pulling people over and doing heavy enforcement. That is not the mission. The mission is: Be present, talk to people, be the visual example of security. We want people to see a patrol car and say: I’m glad the cops are here. I don’t think we’re there yet. But I believe we can get there. 

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AE: Officers at SPD have told me morale is about as low as it’s been since 2020. And some of that is that Diaz was not particularly well-liked among a lot of the rank and file. I’ve also heard there has been a culture of retaliation against people who’ve spoken up and tried to change things. If you’re not going to be making personnel changes, which I think you said at the press conference— 

SR: I said I’m not going to change staff at the top right now. If I need to make a staff change, I will make it. The mayor was very clear. He said you will have the ability to change staff as you need to. But I’ve been here a whole week.

AE:  But does that description sound accurate to you—that upper leaders have engaged in retaliation or misused Office of Police Accountability investigations, that sort of thing?

SR: I have heard people use the term “weaponizing” of OPA and things like that. I have not seen that among the upper command staff. I’m certainly not going to cover my ears, if I hear of it. I haven’t seen it. I have heard people say: It feels like there’s a target on my back. I also have been around long enough to know when an adverse personnel action happens, it’s a very common human response to assume that somebody’s retaliating against me. I haven’t seen evidence of that, but I haven’t had enough time to really dig into it. And I think it’s important to know that two things can be true. There can be a legitimate reason to move somebody [to another part of SPD]. And it’s possible that there can also be discrimination.

And to be honest with you, we’ve got public safety to deal with. And I feel like there’s been so much focus recently on personnel issues and acrimony. I am trying my best to get people to stop ruminating about that and focus on public safety. 

AE: In my reporting, and KUOW’s reporting, and in the 30/30 report, it seems there is a climate of misogyny and discrimination against women at SPD. What, in your short time here, can you do to address that and fix that?

SR: Because I’ve done work all around the country [and] I’ve worked in a couple of agencies, I can say it exists in every police agency that I’ve worked for. I’ve said it before: SPD is not unique. I am not going to pretend like it doesn’t exist, because we are part of a larger society and that exists in our entire society. So it would be ridiculous to think that it doesn’t exist inside of any organization, including the police department. I don’t know where the hot spots are.

There are multiple investigations going on, and lawsuits. Frankly, there are mechanisms to do those investigations and to manage those lawsuits. I am going to look at what I’ve got in front of me, and what can I influence right now. If I see any evidence of that type of thing I will absolutely respond to it. But right now my focus is that we’ve got summer starting, we’ve got a staffing crisis. We have got to get our focus back on public safety, delivering service, not focusing on personnel issues.

Continue reading “Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr: “We Have a Lot of Work to Do.”” →

Police

Seattle Officer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian Cited for Two Collisions Before He Was Fired by Tucson Police
The intersection of Dexter and Thomas, where police officer Kevin Dave struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula last year.

By Andrew Engelson

Kevin Dave—the Seattle police officer who killed 23-year-old pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula last year while driving 74 miles an hour—was involved in two collisions in the span of a month before he was fired by the Tucson Police Department in 2013 for “failing to meet minimum standards” during his one-year training period.

PubliCola exclusively reported on Dave’s November 2013 firing in January. In April, we reported that SPD knew Dave had a “checkered history” in Tucson—including five internal investigations as a recruit and a possible drunk driving incident—but hired him anyway.

PubliCola obtained documents detailing Dave’s collision history in Tucson through a records request.

The documents reveal that Dave failed to promptly report one of the collisions to his superiors; that incident occurred while he was driving without valid insurance. After a second incident that occurred a month before Dave was fired, a supervising lieutenant wrote, “I am extremely concerned about this pattern of bad decision making. Ofc. Dave is not demonstrating the kind of personal responsibility and sound judgment we require from a Tucson Police officer.”

Tucson police classified the second incident as a “preventable collision.”

The first collision occurred on July 26, 2013. According to the report, Dave failed to yield to an oncoming car while turning left at a stop sign, striking the car and tearing off the bumper of his patrol vehicle. Dave got a ticket and the collision was ranked as a relatively minor incident; as discipline, he received “counseling” from his supervisor.

The second collision occurred exactly a month later, on August 26, 2013. While on a lunch break during training for rookie officers, Dave was driving his personal vehicle when he rear-ended another car. There were no injuries, but Dave’s vehicle deployed its airbags and had to be towed. The other driver’s car was totaled, according to the report.

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After Dave and the driver and Dave exchanged information, the driver Dave struck called the Tucson Police Department to tell them Dave was driving without valid insurance. The investigation found that Dave was at fault, did not have active insurance, and did not report the incident to his superiors until more than an hour and a half had passed. Investigators found that Dave violated the department’s conduct standards and recommended a ten-day suspension—though by the time the report was filed, Dave had already been fired. 

The report also noted that in August 2013, a personnel evaluation found Dave had been driving with expired registration for seven months. The supervisor filing the report wrote, “…I advised him officers were held to a higher standard. I also explained the hypocrisy of Officer Dave potentially citing citizens for the very violation he had been committing each day he was driving his vehicle with expired registration.” The officer noted that Dave told him he was having financial difficulties and had to decide which bills were most urgent.

Earlier this month, the Seattle Times reported that Dave had failed to pay a $5,000 fine for a negligent driving citation he received from City Attorney Ann Davison’s office for striking and killing Kandula in a crosswalk in South Lake Union. King County prosecutors declined to file any charges against Dave for the fatal collision. 

The Tucson investigation into the second collision concluded that Dave “has shown extremely poor judgment in the way he handled himself throughout this incident” and faulted him for not telling his supervisor about the collision promptly but instead simply saying he would not return from lunch. The report noted Dave also failed to inform supervisors that the airbags had deployed and that another passenger was in his vehicle at the time. As a result, “the incident was not properly investigated,” according to the report.

SPD’s communications department did not respond to a request for comment on Dave’s history on Tuesday.