Cop caught laughing at bystander killed by speeding officer: ‘She was 26, she had limited value’
A police detective in Seattle was caught on camera laughing about the death of a graduate student who was struck and killed by another officer.
On January 23, Jaahnavi Kandula was crossing the street in a crosswalk when she was struck by a Officer Kevin Dave, who was speeding to the scene of an emergency.
Kandula, 23, was a graduate student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, pursuing a master’s degree in information technology.
Eight months later, shocking video footage emerged of another police officer joking about her death and saying she had ‘limited value.’
The video, which was released by the Seattle Police Department on Monday, is from the body-worn camera of Detective Daniel Auderer, who responded to the fatal accident.
After leaving the scene, Auderer’s camera picked up a conversation he had with another person regarding the crash.
Auderer, who serves as the Vice President of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, was reportedly speaking with the union’s president, Mike Solan, the Seattle’s Community Police Commission (CPC) said.
‘He’s going 50 [miles per hour], that’s not out of control,’ Auderer said. ‘That’s not reckless for a trained driver.’
A police report obtained by Publicola confirmed that Dave had actually been driving 74 miles per hour down a road that had a speed limit of 25.
The same report also confirmed that Dave hit his brakes only one second before colliding with Kandula.
After confirming with his colleague that Kandula had died, Auderer can be heard cackling with laughter.
‘Yeah, just write a check,’ he says while continuing to laugh. ‘$11,000 – she was 26 anyway, she had limited value.’
Auderer then seemingly realizes his camera was recording the conversation, and abruptly turns the device off.
The video was discovered by another Seattle Police Department employee, who was viewing the footage as part of a ‘routine course of business,’ the department said.
The video has since been forwarded to the Office of Police Accountability for a formal investigation.
The Community Police Commission called the video ‘appalling’ and ‘incredibly insensitive.’
‘Just hearing someone who works at SPD say that about a human life moments after she was killed by being struck by a Seattle police vehicle is absolutely heartbreaking,’ the organization said.
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