Seattle officer fired for ‘cruel comments and insensitive laughter’ after Indian student’s death, police chief says

A Seattle police officer was fired because of “dehumanizing laughter” and “cruel comments” he made following the death of a man in 2023. Indian postgraduate student who was run over by a police vehicle, says the chief.

Seattle Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr fired former officer Daniel Auderer on Wednesday and justified her decision to the department in an internal email, attaching the department’s disciplinary action report alongside.

“There is no doubt that the named officer’s cruel comments and insensitive laughter over the tragic death have caused deep pain to Ms. Kandula’s family, but also immeasurable damage to public trust in police in the Seattle community, across the country. and across the world. ,” Rahr wrote in the internal memo, noting that many in the community said Auderer’s “dehumanizing laughter” heard in the video was “more outrageous and disturbing” than even Kandula’s death.

“It is my duty as leader of this organization to uphold the high standards necessary to maintain public trust,” Rahr wrote. “To me, allowing the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonor to the entire department.”

On January 23, 2023, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from Andhra Pradesh, India, was fatally struck by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave’s police patrol vehicle while she was in a crosswalk. Eight months after the incident, police released footage from police body-worn cameras which captured a telephone conversation in which Auderer, a day after being sent to the scene to examine whether the officer whose vehicle struck her was in trouble, can be heard laughing, saying that Kandula’s life had “limited value.”

“But she’s dead,” Auderer says in the body-worn camera footage, apparently in response to the person on the phone.

“No, he’s a normal person,” says Auderer. Moments later, he responds: “Yes, just write a check” and laughs.

“Yes, $11,000. Anyway, she was 26,” he adds, confusing Kandula’s age. “It had limited value.”

CNN reached out to Auderer for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The video release last year caused outrage across the country, especially in the South Asian diaspora – inspirational rallies, meetings with elected officials It is online petitions demanding justice for Kandula. It also caught the attention of on-screen celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Lilly Singh, who posted about her death online.

Auderer, who is also vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Union, “intended the comment to be a mockery of lawyers,” he wrote in an Aug. 8 letter to the city’s Office of Police Accountability. released by the Seattle Police Officers Guild. “I was imitating what a lawyer in charge of negotiating the case would say and being sarcastic in expressing that they shouldn’t make crazy arguments to minimize the payout.”

CNN has reached out to the Seattle Police Officers Guild for comment.

“I believe the impact of your actions is so devastating that it cannot be mitigated by your intention to keep your conversation private,” Rahr wrote in his email to the police department. “The pain your words have inflicted on Ms. Kandula’s family cannot be erased.”

“This individual officer’s actions have shamed the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making every officer’s job more difficult,” she continued.

Body-worn camera footage was provided to the King County Prosecutor’s Office as part of the fatality case, according to Rahr. The office announced in February would not bring criminal charges against Dave – whose patrol vehicle struck Kandula – saying it “lacks sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Kevin Dave was impaired by drugs or alcohol, drove recklessly or drove with disregard for the safety of others.”

The city’s Office of Police Accountability in January recommended that Auderer be fired following an investigation that found the officer violated the department’s Standards and Duties policy and bias-free policing policy, a spokesperson told CNN.

Kandula was from Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh and spoke Telugu, Telugu Association of North America president Niranjan Srungavarapu previously told CNN. The group helped return her remains to India in January, he said.

She came to the United States in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in information systems at the College of Engineering at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, according to the school. She would have graduated in December.

“Jaahnavi, a young soul full of dreams and hopes, came to the United States with the aspirations of pursuing a master’s degree and being a beacon of support for her family,” the association said in a statement to the Seattle community and members. “Her future was a bright light, cruelly extinguished.”

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