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Seattle Police fires officer who mocked Jaahnavi Kandula’s death
Kevin Dave, the speeding cop who killed Jaahnavi Kandula, has received no criminal charges and still serves on the police force.
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Jaahnavi Kandula / (Image Courtesy: @IndianTechandInfra/X)
A Seattle police officer, who laughed and made offensive comments immediately after another officer struck and killed Indian graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula, was fired from the force on July 17.
Kandula, who was attending Northeastern University to pursue her Master’s degree in Information Systems, was hit by Seattle police officer Kevin Dave on Jan. 23, 2023, as she was crossing a busy street. Dave was speeding at 74 mph in a 25 mph zone and instantly killed the 23-year-old student from Bengaluru.
Dave faces no criminal charges but was ordered instead in March to pay a $5,000 traffic ticket. The officer, who continues to serve on the Seattle police force, has not yet paid his fine. Meanwhile, Officer Daniel Auderer, who was immediately dispatched to the scene to determine whether Dave was intoxicated or high has been fired from the force.
In a Disciplinary Action Report forwarded to New India Abroad, Seattle’s interim Chief of Police Sue Rahr laid out her reasons for firing Auderer.
On the day of the incident, Auderer determined that Dave was not impaired and left. On his drive back, his body camera captured two minutes of his telephone conversation with a colleague. Auderer was heard saying: “I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, and then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car. But she is dead.”
Auderer can be heard laughing for several seconds after proclaiming Kandula had died. Further, he was heard saying: “Yeah, just write her a check. Just $11,000. She was 26 anyway. Her life had limited value.” He then realized his body camera was on, and deactivated the device, according to the report.
Auderer later told the Office of Police Accountability: “You can either laugh or cry. You don’t laugh over death. You laugh at the absurdity of it.” He also said that it is not uncommon for people whose professions frequently expose them to traumatic situations to use “gallows” humor as a coping mechanism.
His attorney noted that Auderer has worked on many grisly cases and seen a lot of death. “Police officers cannot react to death like humans do. They must desensitize, because if they don’t laugh, they will cry,” she said.
As for the remarks he made about the value of Kandula’s life, Auderer said he was mocking city attorneys who would potentially be litigating a wrongful death suit. He later apologized, acknowledging the hurtfulness of his words, and said he wished he could bear the Kandula family’s pain.
But Rahr fired him nonetheless. “There is no doubt that your cruel and callous laughter and comments about the tragic death caused deep pain to Kandula’s family, but also immeasurable damage to the tenuous public trust of police in Seattle, across the nation and around the world,” Rahr wrote in the Disciplinary Action Report.
She noted that members of the community, and representatives of the Indian government have expressed “extreme outrage.” “Your individual actions have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and disgraced our entire profession,” she said.
Fremont mayoral candidate Raj Salwan, who helped to organize a vigil for Kandula last September, told New India Abroad, “I am deeply relieved to see that accountability is being upheld in this tragic case. Officer Auderer’s termination sends a clear message that callousness and insensitivity have no place in law enforcement.”
“As someone who spoke at Jaahnavi’s vigil, I am reminded of the importance of empathy and justice in honoring her memory. This action is a step towards restoring trust and ensuring that such behavior is unequivocally condemned,” said Salwan.
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