The 50 mph figure is particularly significant because it is self-reported information provided by SDPD itself, not an estimate made by Cann's family, a witness or any other. And it answers a basic question that SDPD repeatedly declined to answer publicly in the months after one of its officers killed Cann: How fast was the police vehicle traveling?
According to the Medical Examiner's investigative report, Cann was walking eastbound across Linda Vista Road at an unmarked location at approximately 1:29am on June 17 when a marked 2026 Ford Police Interceptor Utility traveling southbound struck him.
The investigator wrote that the vehicle was traveling "at approximately 50 miles per hour" based on information obtained during a telephone conversation on the morning Cann died with the officer involved in the incident - SDPD Officer Andres, ID 7335 - according to the medical report.
The Medical Examiner's report does not say that investigators independently calculated the SUV's speed at 50 mph. Rather, the figure came from SDPD itself. That distinction raises another obvious question: If the officer reported approximately 50 mph, what does the objective evidence show?
SanDiegoVille has sought GPS, Automatic Vehicle Location and other electronic records concerning the police vehicle, but the City has withheld those records. SDPD has also not disclosed whether investigators downloaded vehicle data capable of independently establishing speed, braking or acceleration immediately before impact. What is now documented is that the approximately 50 mph figure existed from the very beginning.
The Medical Examiner investigator obtained the information from SDPD on June 17 - the same morning Cann was killed. Yet when SanDiegoVille later specifically asked SDPD how fast its vehicle had been traveling, the Department did not disclose it.
SanDiegoVille asked whether investigators determined the patrol vehicle's speed, whether braking and acceleration were examined and whether electronic vehicle information existed that could establish what happened immediately before impact. Those questions were among the objective details SDPD declined to answer while citing its continuing investigation. Instead, SDPD said it could not provide additional information because the Medical Examiner had not finished investigating Cann's death.
"This case is still an open investigation, as the Medical Examiner's Office has not confirmed the cause of death," Lt. Cesar Jimenez previously told SanDiegoVille. "In answering your questions now, we would be infringing upon an open investigation."
That explanation no longer applies. The Medical Examiner has completed its investigation and officially determined that Cann died from blunt-force trauma, with his manner of death classified as suicide. Investigators documented a suicide-type note, communications of a suicidal nature and other circumstances supporting that determination. SanDiegoVille will not publish Cann's private communications or unnecessary details from his autopsy.
The completed Medical Examiner investigation substantially corroborates SDPD's early conclusion that Cann intended to take his own life. But that does not erase what the same investigation reveals about the police vehicle.
According to information SDPD itself provided, its officer was traveling approximately 50 mph on a roadway posted at 40 mph immediately before striking Cann. That disclosure comes just four months after the City of San Diego published a major Comprehensive Speed Management Plan warning residents about precisely the dangers created by increased vehicle speeds.
"Vehicle speed is one of the most important factors in whether a crash results in a minor injury or a fatal outcome," the City's February 2026 plan states. "Even small changes in speed can mean the difference between a survivable crash and a deadly one."
The City expressly explains why. As speed increases, the force of impact rises sharply and the human body's ability to survive decreases, according to the City's plan. Slower speeds also provide drivers more time to recognize potential conflicts, react and stop. Elsewhere, San Diego's plan calls unsafe vehicle speed "one of the most significant contributors to crash severity"and says enforcement is important to ensuring that speed limits are respected. Those are the standards the City is publicly urging motorists throughout San Diego to follow.
The newly released government record now says an SDPD officer reported traveling 25% above the posted speed limit immediately before his government vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian. The location makes the disclosure even more consequential.
Years before Cann's death, San Diego had already identified pedestrian-safety concerns along Linda Vista Road near the USD campus. A 2016 City of San Diego Comprehensive Active Transportation Strategy evaluated Linda Vista Road between Brunner and Goshen streets and recommended improvements near the staircase connecting the roadway with the USD area, including a high-visibility crosswalk and pedestrian-activated beacon. Those improvements were never constructed.
An earlier pedestrian-planning document also recorded a public complaint about Linda Vista Road and Goshen Street specifically warning that traffic traveled too fast and pedestrians faced substantial distances before reaching a safe crossing. Then, on June 17, Cann was struck at an unmarked crossing location by a police SUV whose driver reported traveling approximately 50 mph.
The City has disclosed far more about Cann than about the officer who struck him. Within roughly a day of Cann's death, SDPD publicly announced that investigators had determined he intentionally stepped into the police vehicle's path. The Department disclosed that evidence and witness statements supported its conclusion concerning Cann's state of mind while declining for months to disclose basic information concerning its own employee and vehicle.
SDPD still has not provided SanDiegoVille with Officer Andres's full name. It has not released the electronic records SanDiegoVille sought to independently determine the police vehicle's speed. It has not disclosed whether Andres was responding to an emergency, the priority of any call, whether emergency lights or sirens were activated, whether the SUV's electronic data was downloaded or whether investigators determined that his driving complied with SDPD policy. And there is no dashboard-camera footage that could show what Andres saw as his vehicle approached Cann.
After SanDiegoVille repeatedly sought such footage, SDPD acknowledged that its patrol vehicles simply are not equipped with dashboard cameras. The City has withheld body-camera footage and electronic vehicle-location records related to the incident.
California law can exempt authorized emergency vehicles from certain traffic rules under specified circumstances. But SDPD has not provided the information necessary for the public to determine whether those circumstances existed here. That is precisely why the unanswered questions matter.
Cann's suicide and the officer's driving are not mutually exclusive issues. The Medical Examiner's finding establishes its conclusion concerning Cann's intent. It does not establish that 50 mph was an appropriate speed, that the collision was unavoidable, that the officer could not have reacted differently or that SDPD's employee complied with every applicable law and Department policy. SanDiegoVille made that distinction months ago, before knowing the officer's reported speed.
"A pedestrian can intentionally enter a roadway while a driver simultaneously travels too fast for conditions," SanDiegoVille reported in August. At the time, the article expressly acknowledged that nothing then available established that such a circumstance existed in Cann's death. Now there is substantially more information.
SDPD's own account to the Medical Examiner places its vehicle at approximately 50 mph - 10 mph and 25% above the posted speed limit - immediately before impact. Whether objective electronic evidence shows the vehicle was traveling 50 mph, slower than 50 mph or even faster than the officer reported remains unknown because those records have not been made public. That is now among the most important unanswered questions in the case.
SDPD previously pointed to the unfinished Medical Examiner investigation as justification for declining to answer SanDiegoVille's questions. The Medical Examiner's investigation is finished. It corroborates SDPD's conclusion that Cann's death was a suicide.
It also reveals that SDPD knew from the morning Cann died that its officer reported traveling approximately 50 mph before striking him - a fact the Department did not disclose when specifically asked about the vehicle's speed.
SanDiegoVille has again asked SDPD to identify Officer Andres by his full name, explain why the vehicle was traveling approximately 50 mph, disclose whether the officer was responding to an emergency and using emergency lights or sirens, state whether electronic vehicle data independently corroborates the officer's reported speed, and explain whether its investigation concluded that his driving complied with California law and Department policy.
This story will be updated if SDPD responds or releases additional records.
Originally published on October 2, 2026.
