US cop who mocked Jaahnavi Kandula’s death defends himself: ‘…was being sarcastic’

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild on Friday came out in defence of its Officer Daniel Auderer, who was caught making insensitive comments on the death of Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula.

Jaahnavi died in January, when she was struck by a police car while she was crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing. The incident gained traction again this week after a bodycam footage of the incident surfaced, showing Auderer apparently mocking Kandula’s death. “In the video, Auderer can be heard saying, “Yeah, just write a check. USD 11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”

Following the outrage over his comments and allegations of institutional racism and police brutality, Auderer, who acted as the responding officer to the crash, defended himself saying his comments were “taken out of context”.

In a letter addressed to Gino Betts, director Office of Police Accountability, Auderer said he was under the impression of the conversation being private at that time. “While enroute home I called Mike Solan to give him an update…The conversation took place in my patrol car…Solan stated something to the effect that it was unfortunate that this would turn into lawyers arguing ‘The value of human life,” he wrote.

“Mike Solan asked me as he was lamenting the loss of life something similar to: ‘What crazy argument can a lawyer make in something like this? What crazy thing can they come up with.’ I responded with something like: ‘She’s 26 years old, what value is there, who cares.’ I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers…,” he said. I was being “sarcastic to express that they (lawyers) shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimise the payment,” Auderer wrote.

Jaahnavi, 23, was hit at the intersection of Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street by Seattle officer Kevin Dave’s cruiser, who was driving at an excessive speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone, which resulted in the fatal accident.

Meanwhile, Jaahnvai’s family, in a statement, earlier said that the officer’s comments were “deeply disturbing and saddening” and remarked that “that every human life is invaluable and should not be belittled.”

The Seattle Office of Police Accountability said that it has opened an investigation into the incident.

Jaahnavi hailed from Andhra Pradesh.