Footage from the aftermath of Seattle Police officer Kevin Dave fatally striking graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk as Dave was responding to a drug overdose call (via YouTube screengrab/KING). Inset: Kandula (via GoFundMe).
A seemingly jolly police union leader in Seattle, Washington, was caught on his own body camera video saying a 23-year-old woman who had just been struck and killed by another officer in his police car "had limited value," although he later said the comments were taken out of context and were intended as a criticism of lawyers' "crazy arguments."
The Seattle Police Department released the video on Monday of Det. Daniel Auderer leaving the scene of a Jan. 23 fatal accident involving Officer Kevin Dave, who struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula with his cruiser while responding to a drug overdose call. According to copy of the internal investigation obtained by conservative radio host Jason Rantz of KTTH, Auderer was on the phone with Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan after leaving the accident scene where he conducted a sobriety check on the officer, which is standard procedure. Auderer is reportedly the vice president of the guild.
The body camera was "inadvertently" turned on and captured Auderer's half of the conversation.
"Initially he said she was in a crosswalk," Auderer is heard saying. "There's a witness who said 'no she wasn't.' I don't think she was thrown 40 feet. I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car."
"But she is dead," said Auderer, who then started laughing, apparently over something Solan said in response.
Auderer continues to laugh in a back-and-forth with Solan.
"Yeah just write a check….11 thousand dollars. She was 26, she had limited value."
Seattle police said an employee "concerned about the nature of statements" alerted the chief's office after watching the video. An internal investigation began and is ongoing, the department said.
In an interview with internal investigators in the report obtained by Rantz, Auderer said his comments needed more context. He said he was not mocking Kandula's death rather the city's attorneys who may have to negotiate a settlement with her family's lawyers should a lawsuit be filed.
"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. 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 said, according to the report. "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."
He also told investigators he "lamented" the death but understood how people would consider him being insensitive by watching the body cam footage.
A crash investigation obtained by local news website Publicola said Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone. One witness said Kandula was walking in a crosswalk and tried to avoid being hit, but it was too late. Dave hit the brakes about a second before impact, the report said.
A witness said Dave's siren was activated. The cruiser's hood crumpled and sustained "a long gouge from her elbow at the point of contact," Publicola reported. Her AirPods were recovered 100 feet down the road.
Seattle police traffic investigators determined that if Dave was traveling 50 mph, the collision could have been avoided.
The Seattle Community Police Commission, a citizen oversight board, released a statement saying that "Seattle deserves better."
"The reported explanation that he was mocking lawyers does not make this unprofessional and inhumane conduct any better because it shows — in what was believed to be a private conversation with SPOG leadership — a callous dismissiveness toward police accountability systems that are at the heart of the City's efforts to reform the Seattle Police Department and come out from under the Consent Decree," the statement said.
According to a GoFundMe page for Kandula's family that raised over $160,000, she was a student pursuing her master's degree at Northeastern University in Seattle.
"The family has nothing to say," her uncle Ashok Mandula told the Seattle Times on Monday. "Except I wonder if these men's daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life."
