‘She had limited value’: Seattle officer probed for joking about student killed by police car
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The officer was responding to an incident in which student Jaahnavi Kandula was killed.
PHOTO: GOFUNDME
Authorities in the United States are investigating a policeman after bodycam footage emerged of him apparently joking about a woman who was fatally hit by a police car.
The officer, Daniel Auderer, was responding to an incident in which student Jaahnavi Kandula was killed near the university she was attending on Jan 23, US media reported this week.
The 23-year-old Indian national had been hit by a police car while crossing the road.
The vehicle that hit her was on its way to respond to an unrelated incident, police documents said.
On Monday, the authorities released bodycam footage in which Mr Auderer can be heard talking to someone on the phone about what had happened.
At one point, he laughs, apparently in response to a comment made by the person on the call.
Mr Auderer goes on to describe the victim as “a regular person”.
He then says “just write a cheque”, before adding “yeah, US$11,000 (S$15,000), she was 26 anyway”, incorrectly stating Ms Kandula’s age.
“She had limited value,” the officer adds.
Mr Auderer is a Seattle Police Department union leader and was reportedly on the phone with union president Mike Solan.
The police department said an employee listened to the conversation captured in the footage “in the routine course of business”.
Mr Auderer has since said his comments were taken out of context.
He said his comments about Ms Kandula’s value were meant to be a mockery of city lawyers, who might try to minimise liability for her death.
The Seattle Community Police Commission, an oversight agency, described the footage with Mr Auderer’s comments as “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive”.
Officer Daniel Auderer said his comments were taken out of context.
PHOTO: OPENOVERSIGHT
Ms Kandula was a graduate student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus.
She had gone to the United States in 2021 on a student exchange programme, and was due to get her master’s degree in information systems in December.
The university announced on Thursday it would grant her a posthumous degree and present it to her family.
The Indian consulate in San Francisco has called for a “thorough investigation” into Ms Kandula’s death.
Seattle’s King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
