In a conversation with Mike Solan, the head of the Seattle Police Officersā Guild, Seattle Police Department officer and SPOG vice president Daniel Auderer minimized the killing of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula by police officer Kevin Dave and joked that she had ālimited valueā as a āregular personā who was only 26 years old.
In the video, taken in the early morning after Dave hit Kandula in a crosswalk while speeding to respond to a call from a man who believed he had taken too much cocaine, Auderer says he has talked to Dave and he is āgood,ā adding that ā it does not seem like thereās a criminal investigation going onā because Dave was āgoing 50 [mph]āthatās not out of controlā and because Kandula may not have even been in a crosswalk. Auderer added that Dave had ālights and sirensā on, which video confirmed was not true.
In fact, as we reported exclusively, Dave was driving 74 miles an hour in a 25 mile per hour zone and struck Kandula while she was attempting to cross the street in a marked and well-lighted crosswalk.
āI think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead. No, itās a regular person. Yeah, just write a check. Yeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.āāSeattle police officer Daniel Auderer, joking with police union president Mike Solan about the death of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula earlier that night.
āI donāt think she was thrown 40 feet either,ā Auderer told Solan. āI think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, then when he hit the brakes, she flew off the car. But she is dead.ā Then Auderer laughed loudly at something Solan said. āNo, itās a regular person. Yeah.ā
We have asked SPOG via email what Solan asked that made Auderer clarify that Kandula was a āregularā person, as opposed to another type of person Dave might have hit.
āYeah, just write a check,ā Auderer continued. Then he laughed again for several seconds. āYeah, $11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.ā At this point, Auderer turned off his body camera and the recording stops.
Joel Merkel, the co-chair of Seattleās Community Police Commission, called the video āshockingly insensitive.
āI was just really struck by the casual laughter and attitudeāthis was moments after she was killed,ā Merkel said. āYou have the vice president of SPOG on the telephone with the president of SPOG essentially laughing and joking about the pedestrianās death and putting a dollar value on her head, and that alone is just disgusting and inhumane,ā Merkel said.
[article continues]
Wow wtf