US cop who joked about Indian student's death says comments taken out of context; online petition seeks his termination

PTI

Washington, September 16

The Seattle Police Officers' Guild on Friday came out in defence of its official, who was found making insensitive comments after the death of Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula earlier this year, saying some viral videos of police actions shared by media fail to explain the full story and context.

Kandula, a student at Washington's Northeastern University, was struck by officer Kevin Dave at a pedestrian crossing on the night of January 23. He was driving at a speed of more than 119 kmh on the way to a report of a drug overdose call.

In a bodycam footage released on Monday by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the deadly crash and dismissed any implication Dave might be at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary.

In the video, Auderer can be heard saying, "Yeah, just write a cheque. US$ 11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value."

"The video captures only one side of the conversation. There is much more detail and nuance that has not been made public yet," the Seattle Police Officers Guild said in a statement as it also released a letter written by its officer Auderer in which the latter is saying that he intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers.

In the letter dated August 3 to the Office of Police Accountability, Auderer said he laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how he has watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.

"At the time I believed the conversation was private and not being recorded. The conversation was also not within the course of my duties," he wrote in his letter to Gino Betts, director Office of Police Accountability.

"On January 23, I was dispatched from home to assist with a fatality collision involving a city vehicle," he said.

"While en route home I called Mike Solan to give him an update regarding what had occurred. The phone call was inadvertently recorded on my BWV which had turned on. The conversation took place in my patrol car. I was the only occupant. During that phone call Mike 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 – 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 minimise the payment," Auderer wrote.

"I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I have watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy. At the time, I believed the conversation was private and not being recorded. The conversation was also not within the course of my duties," he said.

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