US police officer who laughed at the death of an Indian student fired

A Seattle police officer whose insensitive comments and laughter sparked outrage following the death of an Indian student has been fired.

Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, was struck by a police cruiser driven by Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave on Jan. 23 as she was crossing a street. Dave was traveling at 74 mph (more than 119 kph) on his way to a drug overdose call. Kandula was thrown 100 feet when she was struck by the speeding patrol car.

In bodycam footage released by Seattle police, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the fatal crash, noting, “Uh, I think she flew onto the hood, hit the windshield and then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car… But she’s dead.” After these comments, Auderer “laughed loudly for four seconds,” the disciplinary action report states.

Seattle Police Department Interim Chief Sue Rahr said in an internal email that the pain Auderer’s words caused to Kandula’s family “cannot be undone. The actions of this single officer have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession and have made the job of every single officer more difficult.”

Rahr said as head of the organization, it was her duty to maintain the high standards necessary to maintain the public’s trust. “Allowing the officer to remain on our force would only bring further shame to the entire department. For this reason, I will be terminating his employment,” she said in the internal email seen by PTI.

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