Seattle police officer who mocked deceased Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula with comment “limited value” fired

The Seattle Police Department has fired an officer after he sparked an outcry with his insensitive comments and laughter following the gruesome death of 23-year-old Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula.

Kandula was struck by a speeding police vehicle driven by Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave on January 23, 2024, as she was crossing a street. Dave was traveling at over 74 mph on his way to a drug overdose call. Kandula was thrown 100 feet when she was struck by the speeding patrol car.

Seattle police have relieved Officer Daniel Auderer of duty. In bodycam footage released by police, Auderer could be heard laughing after the fatal crash and saying, “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 making these comments, Auderer “laughed loudly for four seconds,” the department’s disciplinary action report states.

Auderer’s body-worn camera also recorded him saying, “Yeah, just write a check. Easy, yeah (laughs). $11,000. She was 26 anyway. Her money was of limited value.”

When asked in an interview with the Office of Police Accountability about his comments that Kandula had “limited value,” Auderer claimed he would “make a mockery of the prosecutors who would be tasked with trying a potential wrongful death trial.”

Interim Chief Sue Rahr of the Seattle Police Department said in an internal email seen by PTI on Wednesday that the pain Auderer’s words caused to Kandula’s family “cannot be undone.”

“The actions of this individual 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.

Rahr, the organization’s leader, said 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.

Rahr pointed out that this case involves the extremely difficult decision of how to fairly weigh “intention and effect”.

“There is no doubt that the officer in question’s cruel comments and callous laughter over Ms. Kandula’s tragic death have caused profound pain to Ms. Kandula’s family, but have also caused immeasurable damage to public trust in police in the Seattle community, across the country, and around the world,” she said in the email.

Rahr noted that it was unusual for a head of an entire organization to explain a disciplinary decision. He said this was an unusual circumstance and the “case has been widely covered in public and has attracted international media and diplomatic attention.”

Rahr added that she found it “quite remarkable” that a number of people – even those considered very “pro-police” – found the “dehumanizing laughter heard on the video to be more egregious and disturbing” than Kandula’s death.

“Our government gives police officers the power to deprive people of their freedom and, in the most extreme cases, their lives,” Rahr said.

“This authority is based on the public’s trust that officers will demonstrate respect for the sanctity of human life. The officer’s laughter and callous comments about the ‘limited value’ of Ms. Kandula’s life represented a cruel mockery of the sanctity of her life. This is a betrayal of that sacred trust. Not only did his comments irrevocably destroy the public’s trust in the officer as a person, but they did extreme damage to the public’s trust in the entire Seattle Police Department,” Rahr said.

She noted that the impact of Auderer’s actions “are so devastating that they cannot be mitigated by his intention to keep his conversation confidential.”

In February, the King County District Attorney’s Office said it would not file criminal charges against Dave, who was fined $5,000 by the Seattle District Attorney for a traffic violation, KomoNews reports.

King County District Attorney Leesa Manion said she believed there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“It is the responsibility of the King County District Attorney’s Office to review all available evidence related to the case of Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave and the accidental death of Jaahnavi Kandula in January 2023. After staffing this case with senior assistant district attorneys and office leadership, I have concluded that we lack sufficient evidence under Washington State law to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt.”