Sakshi Venkatraman
Fri, September 15, 2023
After footage was released this week of a Seattle police officer saying 23-year-old Jaanhavi Kandula’s life “had limited value” on the night of her death, those who knew and loved her want the world to know that the opposite is true.
Kandula was struck and killed by a different officer while she was crossing the street on Jan. 23. Officer Daniel Auderer, also the vice president of the police union, responded to the scene of the accident and was recorded on his body camera appearing to laugh about and make light of the woman's death.
“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer was recorded saying on a phone call. “She was 26 anyway,” he continued, getting Kandula’s age wrong. “She had limited value.”
The footage has drawn nationwide outrage since its release Monday, but it's been especially painful for those close to Kandula, who say they're being forced to mourn all over again.
“It is truly disturbing and saddening to hear insensible comments on the bodycam video from an SPD officer regarding Jaahnavi’s death,” Kandula's family said in a statement. “Jaahnavi is a beloved daughter and beyond any dollar value for her mother and family. We firmly believe that every human life is invaluable and not [to] be belittled, especially during a tragic loss.”
At Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, where Kandula had been pursuing a master’s degree, students and staff struggled to contend with what they heard in the recording.
“It’s a second grieving,” said Khaled Bugrara, director of Northeastern’s graduate engineering programs and one of Kandula’s academic advisers. “As an educator, it’s my job to make sure these kids blossom in their lives and in their careers. And to feel it taken away from one of your students … it’s a horrible thing.”
Bugrara had been Kandula’s adviser since she moved from India to Seattle during the pandemic to start school at Northeastern. He described her as sharp, meticulous and full of energy. Despite facing family challenges during Covid, which forced her to travel back and forth between India and Seattle, Bugrara said she never faltered at school.
“She kept her head up, she made friends, and she became popular on the Seattle campus because of everything she was doing,” he said.
As a woman studying software engineering, she was in the minority at school, Bugrara said. During one of their last interactions, Bugrara recalls her trying to convince him to bring more classes from the university’s flagship Boston campus to Seattle.
“She was a beautiful person, inside and outside,” he said. “She was so full of hope.”
In a statement to local media shortly after her death, Kandula’s family echoed this description.
“Jaahnavi was a brilliant student with a bright future,” they said. “Jaahnavi’s smile was radiant, and her bubbly personality warmed the hearts of every person she came in contact with. She had an innate ability to connect with people from all walks of life.”
The Seattle Police Officer’s Guild posted an online statement Friday acknowledging the backlash to the footage and detailing some of Auderer's conduct following the incident.
“Without context, this audio is horrifying and has no place in a civil society,” the statement said. “The video captures only one side of the conversation. There is much more detail and nuance that has not been made public yet.”
The Seattle Police Department did not respond to specific questions about the incident but referred NBC News to another statement posted Monday that said they were “in touch with the family of the victim pedestrian.”
South Asian communities feel disrespected
Beyond Kandula’s immediate circles, Indian American community leaders describe an uneasiness in the community after the release of Auderer’s bodycam footage. The common sentiment, they said, is that “it could have been any of us.”
Niranjan Srungavarapu, president of the Telugu Association of North America, helped coordinate the repatriation of Kandula’s body in January. He said listening to the way she was described by officers undoubtedly stung for other South Asians, specifically those who share Kandula’s Telugu identity.
“We were surprised and shocked to hear that kind of treatment of a young girl,” he said.
Srungavarapu said that among immigrants there is already a fear of dealing with authorities, and incidents like this only worsen that.
In the days after the release of the footage, TANA contacted the nearest Consulate General of India in San Francisco to make them aware of the situation, he said. The consulate posted a statement on its social media accounts on Wednesday.
“Recent reports including in media of the handling of Ms Jaahnavi Kandula’s death in a road accident in Seattle in January are deeply troubling,” it said. “We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC for a thorough investigation & action against those involved in this tragic case.”
Other community leaders called the footage “insulting” and questioned what the officer meant by describing her life as less valuable than others.
“It could be my child, my daughter,” said Madhu Bommineni, president of the American Telugu Association. “It hits close to home because every family has someone coming from India and going to schools here. Justice must be served. This person shouldn’t be working.”
Kandula was on track to graduate in December. Northeastern will award her master’s degree posthumously and present it to her family, the university said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Seattle cop who laughed at woman’s death was subject of 29 oversight cases, part of $1.7M suit: reports
Fri, September 15, 2023
The Seattle police officer heard laughing and making questionable remarks on bodycam footage about the death of a woman earlier this year has been the subject of 18 other oversight investigations, according to reports.
Driving the news: The Seattle Police Department (SPD) released this week the footage involving Officer Daniel Auderer, which was recorded shortly after the incident on the night of Jan. 23. Auderer, who is currently vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, was responding to the fatal striking of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula by another police car, driven by Officer Kevin Dave, near Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street.
In his bodycam footage, Auderer can be heard laughing and making insensitive comments about Kandula, including saying that she had “limited value” and advising someone to “just write a check.” Auderer was in the car with the guild’s president, Officer Mike Solan, who is not heard in the recording.
What reports are saying: Web database OpenOversight, which collects information on police disciplinary actions, shows that Auderer was involved in 29 cases brought to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), a city watchdog agency, between 2014 and 2021. Of these, 19 led to OPA investigations, which resulted in some allegations being sustained and Auderer receiving disciplinary actions such as written reprimand and suspension without pay.
More from NextShark: New York now requires those convicted of hate crimes to undergo hate crime prevention training
Meanwhile, DivestSPD, a grassroots police watchdog, claims that Auderer was involved in “lawsuits costing the city over $1.7 million.” It is unclear what exactly these cases are, but previous reports, including from the Seattle Times and KOMO News, say Seattle paid $1.75 million in 2013 to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed over a violent arrest that reportedly involved Auderer and other officers.
Rally held: A rally was held Thursday in the area where Kandula — an Indian graduate student at Northeastern University Seattle — was fatally hit. This time, protesters demanded action to be taken against Auderer, as well as Solan, according to KIRO 7.
"SHE HAD LIMITED VALUE"
Outrage boils in Seattle and in India over death of a student and an officer's callous remarks
SEATTLE (AP) — Outrage grew Friday over a Seattle police officer's remark that the life of a young woman killed by a speeding patrol car had “limited value." Diplomats from India are asking for an investigation following the death of the Indian graduate student as people in Seattle protested the officer's callous jokes caught on bodycam video.
The footage released this week shows Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, joking with the rank-and-file police union’s president after a different officer's speeding police car on Jan. 23 slammed into Jaahnavi Kandula at a crosswalk.
Protesters on Thursday evening gathered at the Seattle intersection where the 23-year-old graduate student was fatally struck by Officer Kevin Dave's SUV. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
Auderer responded to the crash to evaluate whether Dave was impaired, The Seattle Times reported. Dave had been driving 74 mph (119 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone on the way to an overdose call.
Later, Auderer left his body-worn camera on as he called Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan to report what happened. In a recording released by the police department on Monday, Auderer laughs and suggests Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should just write a check for $11,000.
At the demonstration on Thursday, 5-year-old Layla Allibhai sat atop father Mo Allibhai’s shoulders while holding a sign saying: “I have unlimited value. So did Jaahnavi.”
Protesters also carried signs saying “Jail killer cops” and “Convict Kevin Dave.”
“I think this has galvanized people because it’s so blatant and disrespectful to put a value on a human's life at $11,000," Patricia Hunter, co-chair of the Community Police Commission, said in an interview Friday. "And it galvanizes people to see that the culture at Seattle Police Department has some issues that need to be immediately addressed.”
Hunter's commission was formed to hold police accountable, along with the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Police Accountability. Hunter said its next step is to work with those partners to see what charges might be brought in the case, what policies might have been broken and "to amplify the voices of the community which are enraged over this video, so that justice can be done.”
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco tweeted that it has taken the “deeply troubling” matter up with authorities in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., and that it wants a thorough investigation and action against those involved. Newspapers in India have been following the case.
In a statement Friday, the U.S. State Department called the situation disturbing.
“We are aware of, and are disturbed by, what was said about Ms. Kandula’s death in the bodycam footage recently released by the Seattle Police Department,” the State Department said. “We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere condolence to Ms. Kandula’s family and loved ones.”
The Seattle Police Officers Guild said in a statement Friday that it understands the outrage caused by the “highly insensitive comments.”
“It sullens the profession of law enforcement, the reputation of all Seattle Police officers and paints Seattle in a terrible light,” the union said. “We feel deep sorrow and grief for the family of Jaahnavi Kandula as this video has revictimized them in an already tragic situation as they continue to mourn her death. We are truly sorry.”
But the union noted that the bodycam footage captures only Auderer's side of the conversation: “There is much more detail and nuance that has not been made public yet.”
Solan, who had been on the other end of the call with Auderer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Auderer, in an Aug. 8 statement he provided to the Office of Police Accountability that the union released Friday, said Solan had lamented the death and that his own comments were intended to mimic how the city's attorneys might try to minimize liability for it.
“I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy," Auderer wrote. “I understand that without context the comment could be interpreted as horrifying and crude."
He denied that his remarks were “made with malice or a hard heart.”
Kandula was from Andhra Pradesh, a state in India’s southern coastal region. Relatives told The Seattle Times that Kandula came to Seattle so she could one day support her mother back home in India. Kandula was on track to receive a master’s in information systems this December from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University.
__
Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon. Lindsey Wasson in Seattle and Matthew Lee in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.
People gather to protest outside the Seattle Police Department's West Precinct after body camera footage was released of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old woman hit and killed in January by officer Kevin Dave in a police cruiser, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Seattle.
Louise Whitbread
Fri, September 15, 2023
Police officer under investigation for laughing about student’s death
A Seattle police officer is under investigation by a city watchdog agency after joking about the death of a university student who was hit by a speeding patrol car on its way to an 911 call relating to an overdose.
Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, was thrown 100 feet after being hit by the vehicle while on a crosswalk at the Northeastern University Seattle campus in January. Kevin Dave, the officer responsible, was driving at 74mph in a 25mph zone.
The student, from India, died later that night from her injuries.
Officer Daniel Auderer was dispatched to the crash scene on January 23 to check on the officer who struck Kandula. In police bodycam footage, which was only made public earlier this week, Officer Auderer can be heard describing the incident and laughing.
“No, it’s a regular person – yeah, yeah, just write a check. $11,000. She was 26 [sic] anyway. She had limited value,” he says on the video.
The video has been referred to the Seattle Office of Police Accountability “for investigation into the context in which those statements were made and any policy violation that might be implicated,” a statement confirmed.
Only Officer Auderer’s side of the conversation with Mike Solan, union president and co-chair of the Seattle Community Police Commission, can be heard on the tape.
The Seattle Police Department said this week that the footage was discovered, “in the routine course of business by a department employee” who was “concerned about the nature of the statements”.
Protestors have been calling for justice outside the Seattle Police Department following the release of bodycam footage of officer Daniel Auderer who was heard joking about her death (AP)
Officer Auderer, who is trained as a drug recognition expert, submitted a self-reported complaint to the accountability office this week after the footage emerged, according to conservative KTTH Talk Radio host Jason Rantz who obtained a copy of the document.
Mr Auderer described the conversation as “private” and said that he left his body camera running unintentionally.
“I was imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment,” Auderer’s complaint reads.
“The comments were not made with malice. I do understand that if a citizen were to hear it that they would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of a human life.”
In a statement, the Seattle Community Police Commission described the comments as “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive”.
The Commission added: “The reported explanation that he was mocking lawyers does not make this unprofessional and inhumane conduct any better because it shows a callous dismissiveness toward police accountability systems.”
Following the video’s release, the Consulate General of India in San Francisco described it as “deeply troubling”.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, the Consulate wrote: “We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle and Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC for a thorough investigation and action against those involved in this tragic case. The Consulate and Embassy will continue to closely follow up on this matter with all concerned authorities.”
Rally held where Seattle police officer hit and killed woman
Brittany Toolis
Thu, September 14, 2023
Outrage is still boiling over in Seattle after video surfaced showing a Seattle Police officer joking about the death of a young woman, killed by another officer. That outrage is also going international.
On Thursday, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression hosted a second rally for Jaahnavi Kandula’s tragic death. The first time was right after she was hit and killed by a Seattle Police squad car in the crosswalk at the Thomas and Dexter intersection.
The group gathered to demand action be taken against Officer Daniel Auderer, the officer heard in the body camera footage, and against Seattle Police Officer’s Guild President Mike Solen.
The Indian Association of Western Washington is also outraged. They told KIRO 7 they reached out to the Seattle Police Department after Jaahnavi was killed. They asked to be kept in the loop about the investigation but say that didn’t happen. Instead, the Executive Director says they were blindsided by the body camera footage.
“Today we as a community are shocked, we are in pain because this happened to one of our daughters,” said Lalita Uppala, the Executive Director of the Indian Association of Western Washington.
She said they’ve been waiting eight months for an update from Seattle Police on the investigation into Jaahnavi Kandula’s death on January 23, 2023. Uppala said they got radio silence until Monday, when the body camera footage began to go viral. In that footage Seattle Police officer Daniel Auderer is recorded saying just write a check, $11,000. She was 26 anyways. She had limited value.”
“This callous remark of the value to her life, or the lack of value or the fact that there was so much scorn and laughter in that conversation,” said Uppala. She added, “Is this how the caretakers of our community will refer to us?”
Uppala said the Indian community is devastated, and now questions if they can trust the police department.
“Are we really safe? Are we valued? Are our lives valued? because we thought we are but we don’t know that,” said Uppala.
The Indian Consulate in San Francisco posted to “X”:
“Recent reports including in media of the handling of Ms. Jaahnavi Kandula’s death in a road accident in Seattle in January are deeply troubling. We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle and Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC. for a thorough investigation and action against those involved in this tragic case. The Consulate and Embassy will continue to closely follow up on this matter with all concerned authorities.”
The officer in the video, Daniel Auderer is the Vice President of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild. He was named in two lawsuits against the city in 2010 and 2011. As of August, his annual base salary found on a city website was over $119,000 without including overtime. He was on the phone in the recording with the Guild President, Mike Solen.
“This is the vice president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, there’s a really serious problem in the system. It’s not just one or two bad apples, it’s a systemic issue that needs to be solved,” said Ray Mitchell, with the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “The people that enforce our laws they can’t be held to a lower standard than the rest of us, they have to be held to a higher standard.”
“At this point I think it’s not only about the Indian community, it’s about our community,” Uppala added.
KIRO 7 has a Public Disclosure Request in with the Seattle Police Department for any disciplinary actions taken against Auderer throughout his tenure with SPD.
Associated Press
Fri, September 15, 2023
SEATTLE (AP) — A city watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following the death of a woman who was struck and killed by a police cruiser as she was crossing a street.
Daniel Auderer, who is the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, responded to the Jan. 23 crash scene where another officer, Kevin Dave, struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, in a crosswalk. Dave was driving 74 mph (119 kmh) on the way to an overdose call, and Auderer, a drug recognition expert, was assigned to evaluate whether Dave was impaired, The Seattle Times reported.
Afterward, Auderer left his body-worn camera on as he called guild President Mike Solan to report what happened. In a recording released by the police department Monday, Auderer laughs and suggests that Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should “just write a check.”
“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said, inaccurately stating Kandula’s age. “She had limited value.”
The recording did not capture Solan’s remarks.
Neither Auderer nor Solan responded to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
However, a conservative talk radio host on KTTH-AM, Jason Rantz, reported that he had obtained a written statement Auderer provided to the city’s Office of Police Accountability. In it, Auderer said that Solan had lamented the death and that his own comments were intended to mimic how the city’s attorneys might try to minimize liability for it.
“I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers,” Auderer wrote, according to KTTH. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.”
A photo of Jaahnavi Kandula is displayed with flowers, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023 in Seattle, at the intersection where she was killed by a Seattle Police officer driving north while responding to a nearby medical incident. A city watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following the death of a Kandula, who was struck and killed by a police cruiser as she was crossing a street. (Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via AP) Protesters march through downtown Seattle after body camera footage was released of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old woman hit and killed in January by officer Kevin Dave in a police cruiser, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Layla Allibhai, 5, sits atop father Mo Allibhai’s shoulders while holding a sign for Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old woman hit and killed in January by officer Kevin Dave in a police cruiser, as people protest after body camera footage was released of a Seattle police officer joking about Kandula’s death, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Kyla Carrillo, center, leads a chant on the steps of the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct as people protest after body camera footage was released of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old woman hit and killed in January by officer Kevin Dave in a police cruiser, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) A protester writes a message in favor of police abolition with sidewalk chalk as people rally after body camera footage was released of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old woman hit and killed in January by officer Kevin Dave in a police cruiser, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
The station reported that Auderer acknowledged in the statement that anyone listening to his side of the conversation alone “would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life.” The comment was “not made with malice or a hard heart,” he said, but “quite the opposite.”
The case before the Office of Police Accountability was designated as classified. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the details of Auderer’s statement.
The station said Auderer reported himself to the accountability office after realizing his comments had been recorded, because he realized their publicity could harm community trust in the Seattle Police Department.
In a written statement on its online blotter, the department said the video “was identified in the routine course of business by a department employee, who, concerned about the nature of statements heard on that video, appropriately escalated their concerns through their chain of command.” The office of Chief Adrian Diaz referred the matter to the accountability office, the statement said.
It was not immediately clear if both Auderer and the chief’s office had reported the matter to the office, or when Auderer might have done so. Gino Betts Jr., the director of the Office of Police Accountability, told The Seattle Times the investigation began after a police department attorney emailed the office in early August.
Kandula was working toward graduating in December with a master’s degree in information systems from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University. After her death, her uncle, Ashok Mandula, of Houston, arranged to send her body to her mother in India.
“The family has nothing to say,” he told The Seattle Times. “Except I wonder if these men’s daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life.”
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
The controversy over Auderer’s remarks comes as a federal judge this month ended most federal oversight of the police department under a 2012 consent decree that was meant to address concerns about the use of force, community trust and other issues.
Another Seattle police oversight organization, the Community Police Commission, called the audio “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive.”
“The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety,” the commission’s members said in a joint statement.
