The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild on Friday defended its official, Daniel Auderer, who joked in regards to the loss of life of a 23-year-old Indian pupil after she was struck by a rushing patrol automobile earlier this 12 months.
Although the incident occurred in January, the bodycam footage, launched by the Seattle Police Division on Monday, reveals Auderer mocking the Indian pupil’s loss of life. The footage paved method for protest erupting in a number of areas with slogans raised to “finish police terror”.
Jaahnavi Kandula was killed after she was struck by a police car pushed by officer Kevin Dave. In response to the Seattle Occasions newspaper, he was driving 74 mph (greater than 119 kmph) on the way in which to a report of an overdose.
Within the footage, Auderer laughed in regards to the lethal crash and dismissed any implication in opposition to Dave. He was heard saying, “Yeah, simply write a examine. USD 11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had restricted worth.” Following the outage, he defended himself saying that his feedback have been “taken out of context”.
In a letter addressed to Gino Betts, director Workplace of Police Accountability, Auderer stated he was below the impression of the dialog being non-public. He acknowledged that he was giving an replace to Guild’s president Mike Solan whereas he was in his patrol automobile and the talks took flip to the legal professionals arguing “The worth of human life”.
“What loopy argument can a lawyer make in one thing like this?…I responded with one thing like “She’s 26-years-old, what worth is there, who cares’ I supposed the remark as a mockery of legal professionals…,” he stated. I used to be being sarcastic to precise that the (legal professionals) should not be developing with loopy arguments to minimise the payement,” Auderer wrote.
The Seattle Workplace of Police Accountability stated that it has opened an investigation into the incident.
“I laughed on the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and… how I’ve watched these incidents play out as two events discount over a tragedy. On the time I believed the dialog was non-public and never being recorded. The dialog was additionally not throughout the course of my duties,” he stated.

A photograph of Jaahnavi Kandula is displayed with flowers | AP
“I perceive that with out context, the remark might be interpreted as horrifying and crude. With out context, the remark is insensitive to the household of the sufferer when in actuality I used to be concerned in a dialog relating to the callousness of the authorized system. On the time I had no concept who the sufferer was,” Auderer wrote.
The Guild’s assertion learn “The video captures just one aspect of the dialog. There may be way more element and nuance that has not been made public but…SPOG has full confidence that the civilian led police accountability system often known as the Workplace of Police Accountability / OPA will conduct a radical and truthful investigation.”
The Consulate Normal of India in San Francisco on Wednesday termed the dealing with of Kandula’s loss of life in a highway accident as “deeply troubling”.