A bodycam video appears to show a Seattle police officer joking about a woman who was tragically struck by a patrol car, prompting an inquiry. Officer Daniel Auderer was reacting to the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, near her university. The cop is heard in the video stating that the Indian student’s life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a cheque.” According to the officer, his statements were taken out of context. On January 23, Ms. Kandula, a graduate student at Northeastern University, was hit and murdered by a police cruiser while crossing the street.
According to a police investigative report cited by The Seattle Times, the officer operating the car was going at 74mph (119km/h), and the graduate student’s body was flung more than 100ft (30m). Officer Auderer was dispatched to the scene, where his body camera captured audio from a phone call he made to a coworker. “But she’s dead,” the officer is heard saying before bursting out laughing. “No, it’s just an ordinary person.” “Just write a check,” he replies before chuckling again. “11 thousand dollars.” She was, after all, 26. She was of limited worth.” Mr Auderer, a Seattle Police Department union leader, was on the phone with the guild’s president, Mike Solan. Mr. Solan’s audio is inaudible.
According to the Seattle Police Department, the agency is investigating “the context in which” the statements were made
The Seattle Police Department said in a statement on Monday that it learned about the exchange from an employee who overheard it “in the course of business.” According to the police statement, that employee was “concerned about the nature of statements” and elevated their concerns up the line of command. The incident was subsequently turned over to the Office of Police Accountability, which examines police wrongdoing. According to the Seattle Police Department, the agency is investigating “the context in which” the statements were made and whether any policies were violated.
Jason Rantz, a conservative talk radio presenter on KTTH-AM, reported that he had gotten a written statement from Mr. Auderer in which he stated that his comments were intended to emulate how municipal attorneys may try to minimize blame for the woman’s death. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated,” Mr Auderer wrote to KTTH radio.
The body-camera film was labeled as “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive” by the Seattle Community Police Commission, another watchdog agency. Victoria Beach, chair of the African American Community Advisory Council, told local media that she was “shocked, had many emotions,” and was “sickened” by the incident. “I was very disturbed that somebody could laugh about somebody that died,” she said. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
