“She had limited value": Bodycam audio shows Seattle officer laughing after student Jaahnavi Kandula killed by police car

On Monday, September 11, the Seattle police released bodycam footage of an officer responding to the death of 23-year-old Indian student, Jaahnavi Kandula. According to CBS, Kandula was fatally struck by a police car on January 23. Shockingly, in response to the incident, an officer was recorded on a bodycam trivializing the victim's death.

While the car that struck Kandula was driven by officer Kevin Dave, the derogatory comments regarding the death were made by another official, Daniel Auderer.

Trigger warning: This article concerns comments that may be disturbing to some. Readers' discretion is advised.

In the footage, officer Daniel Auderer could be heard saying:

"But she is dead. “No, it’s a regular person.""

He continued to talk about the victim, mistakenly describing her as a 26-year-old.

"Yeah, just write a check. Eleven thousand dollars. She (Jaahnavi Kandula) was 26 anyway. She had limited value.”

The recording is particularly shocking, as Daniel Auderer is the vice president of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild. According to The Seattle Times, the comments are currently under investigation by the Seattle Police Accountability Office.

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The Police department responds to the comments made about Jaahnavi Kandula

As per CBS, the comments made by Daniel Auderer regarding Jaahnuvi Kandula have shocked several officials. While Auderer was not directly involved in the crash, he was the officer ordered to evaluate whether officer Kevin Dave had been under the influence at the time he accidentally killed the Indian student.

In a statement delivered via KTTH-AM, Auderer claimed that he did not intend for the comments to insult Jaahnuvi Kandula. Instead, he said that the bureaucracy of government work had led to dehumanizing discussions of Kandula's death among the city's attorneys. Auderer claimed that he was sarcastically mocking the attitudes one can find in the system:

“I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers. 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.”

The Community Police Commission, however, condemned the way in which Daniel Auderer discussed Jaahnavi Kandula's death. In a joint statement, commission members wrote:

"This speaks to the concerns that the Seattle Community Police Commission has repeatedly raised about elements of Seattle Police Department culture and SPOG resistance to officer accountability measures included in the landmark 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance."

The statement continued:

“The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety."

The New York Post reported that at the time of her death, Jaahnavi Kandula had been pursuing her Master's at Northeastern University's Seattle campus. The victim's family has declined to comment on Auderer's remarks about the accident.