Seattle police officer fired for ‘disgusting’ comments after woman fatally struck by police SUV

A Seattle police officer was fired because make insensitive remarks about the death of a doctoral student from India after she was hit by another police officer’s vehicle on a zebra crossing last year.

Acting Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr fired Officer Daniel Auderer on Wednesday over comments he made in the hours following the January 2023 death of Jaahnavi Kandula, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV reported.

In an email sent to the entire department on Wednesday, Rahr wrote that it was her duty to maintain the high standards necessary to maintain the public’s trust. She said Auderer’s actions “have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession and have made the job of every single police officer more difficult.”

Her decision came after Gino Betts Jr., the civilian director of the Office of Police Accountability, recommended that Auderer be fired for unprofessional conduct and bias in recorded statements.

The office had previously determined that Auderer’s conduct was biased and unprofessional, KIRO-TV reported. Betts described the officer’s words as “derogatory, disturbing and inhumane.”

Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that he supported Rahr’s decision. He and the police chief acknowledged that the decision would likely be appealed and go to arbitration, which could affect the agency’s efforts to end more than a decade of federal oversight of officer accountability.

“This incident has damaged the public trust that we have worked to build since day one of my administration,” Harrell said.

Auderer is the elected vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which represents about 900 rank-and-file police officers. An email from the Associated Press seeking comment did not immediately receive a response.

“Cruel and callous”

In a disciplinary action report outlining the reasons for her decision, Rahr said that in his speech at the disciplinary hearing, Auderer acknowledged that his words had been hurtful. He was “horrified” by what they meant to the young woman’s family and wished he could bear her pain. He concluded with a “heartfelt apology,” the chief wrote.

However, as she reflected on it, she told him “your cruel and heartless laughter” and the pain it caused to Kandula’s family was immeasurable. Auderer has been an officer since 2009 and Rahr also said she has received several letters of support for Auderer from his colleagues.

Auderer argued that the conversation he had with union president Mike Solan after Kandula’s death was private and not intended to be overheard. Rahr wrote that his intention to keep his comments secret was not sufficiently mitigated given the devastating impact of his actions.

In a January recommendation to then-Police Chief Adrian Diaz, Betts and department leadership recommended that Auderer be either fired or suspended for 30 days without pay, the department’s most severe punishment short of termination.

Auderer met with Diaz in May before the chief was scheduled to impose disciplinary action, but Harrell’s demotion of Diaz and the appointment of Rahr as interim chief later that month delayed action.

Auderer, 49, was assigned to the traffic division when he became involved in the investigation into Kandula’s death on Jan. 23, 2023. He went to the scene of the accident in South Lake Union to determine if Kevin Dave, the police officer driving the car that struck Kandula, was impaired.

Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone on his way to an overdose call and began braking less than a second before hitting Kandula, according to a report by an investigator with the department’s traffic crash investigation team. Dave was found to be driving 63 mph when he struck Kandula, and his speed did not allow either of them time to “recognize, address and avoid an emerging hazard.”

Prosecutors in Seattle’s King County said in February that they would not file charges against Dave because there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dave knowingly disregarded safety. Dave was fined $5,000 by the Seattle District Attorney’s Office for careless driving.

Dave received a notice of non-payment in May and is now appealing the fine. The hearing is scheduled for mid-August, according to a Seattle Municipal Court spokesperson.

“Limited value”

The investigation into the accident is ongoing. Following Kandula’s death, Dave was transferred to an administrative role within the department.

Auderer examined Dave and determined he was not impaired. Auderer then called Solan, the union president. The end of Auderer’s two-minute conversation was recorded by his body camera, which he was unaware of.

Auderer can be heard laughing after claiming Kandula’s death, falsely claiming she was “only 26,” and arguing that her young life had “little value” and that the city should simply write a check for $11,000.

The conversation remained undetected until last August, when police officers listened to the audio recording from his body camera.

Reactions to Auderer’s comments were swift, including condemnation from the government of India, Kandula’s home country. The public outcry also prompted the police department to reassign him to office duty pending the results of an internal investigation into his comments.

Auderer and Solan stressed that their conversation was about union business and was taken out of context. They expressed disrespect for a legal process in which civil lawyers would argue and try to put a monetary value on Kandula’s life. Solan also claimed that the OPA investigation amounted to a union berating.

Betts concluded that it was “irrelevant” whether the recording was unintentional and that the subject matter, union business, did not excuse the content of the recording.

“For many, this confirmed, rightly or wrongly, the belief that some officials were denigrating and concealing perverse views about community members – reinforced by the fact that the highest elected representatives of the rank-and-file were on the call,” Betts wrote in his findings, which also sharply criticized Solan’s unwillingness to cooperate with the OPA investigation.

Members of both the Community Police Commission and the African American Advisory Council said Auderer’s laughter over Kandula’s death reinforces the message to the Seattle community that the department as a whole tolerates such behavior, KIRO-TV reported.

“It casts a shadow on the issue. Not just on the police officers in Seattle, but on all police officers in our country. It shows their culture. That some of us are valued and some of us are not. Some lives are valued and some are not, and that does not reflect well on the issue,” said Victoria Beach, chair of the Seattle Police Department’s African-American Community Advisory Council.