Ex-Kansas City police officer pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2018 wreck
A former Kansas City police officer has pleaded guilty to four felonies for causing a crash that killed a teenager and injured two others in 2018 near Arrowhead Stadium before a Chiefs game, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Terrell E. Watkins, 35, pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree assault and a misdemeanor count of careless and imprudent driving, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors alleged Watkins was speeding in a police van Oct. 21, 2018, when he slammed into the back of a Mitsubishi Lancer that was caught up in heavy pregame traffic outside the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex at the Stadium Drive exit off of Interstate 435.
Watkins was late to an off-duty security assignment at a Kansas City Chiefs game when the crash occurred.
Chandan Rajanna, 17, the driver of the Lancer, was killed as a result of the crash. He was a Shawnee Mission South senior. His father and sister were seriously injured.
Watkins also was injured.
The crash occurred a few hours before the Chiefs were scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals. About the time of the wreck, the police van sped along the interstate and made numerous lane changes as it passed other vehicles, witnesses said.
Data collected from the van’s airbag control module showed the van was traveling 76 mph less than a second before striking the back of Rajanna’s car, prosecutors said. The crash caused a chain reaction that affected two other vehicles.
Phone records obtained by detectives through a search warrant showed Watkins’ cellphone was actively being used moments before the crash was reported, according to court records.
Watkins resigned from the Kansas City Police Department on June 20, more than a month before prosecutors filed the charges.
He will be sentenced July 7.
