For Immediate Release
June 2, 2020
A former Kansas City police officer who crashed into a vehicle outside the Truman Sports Complex before the Oct. 18, 2018, Kansas City Chiefs’ Sunday night NFL game, killing one passenger in the car and injuring two others, has pleaded guilty to four felony counts, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.
Terrell E. Watkins, dob: 2/25/1985, pleaded guilty today to Involuntary Manslaughter 1st Degree, two counts of Assault 2nd Degree and the misdemeanor count of Careless and Imprudent Driving.*
Watkins will be sentenced on July 7.
According to court records filed today, on Oct. 21, 2018, a few minutes after 4 p.m., just a few hours before the Kansas City Chiefs were scheduled to play a Sunday night NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals, a Kansas City police officer driving a blue KCPD Ford Van struck the rear of a red Mitsubishi Lancer caught up in traffic congestion outside the Truman Sports Complex at the Stadium Drive exit off of Interstate 435. The driver of the vehicle struck by the police van, Chandan Rajanna, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two passengers in the vehicle were injured in the crash. Watkins was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Witnesses told police the blue police van was observed traveling at a high rate of speed north on I-435, just north of Bannister Road. Records revealed the defendant was employed off-duty as security for the Chiefs and was due to report at 4 p.m. Data from the police van’s Airbag Control Module showed the van was traveling 76 mph less than a second prior to impact with the victim’s vehicle. The defendant’s phone records revealed his phone was actively in use in the moments immediately preceding his report of the crash to police dispatch.
The defendant is no longer employed by the Kansas City Police Department.
For more information, contact:
Michael Mansur
Director of Communication
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office
Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor
Work : (816) 881-3812
Mobile: (816) 674-3954
mmansur@jacksongov.org
http://jacksoncountyprosecutor.com
*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded.