Seattle police who joked about the death of a graduate student who was struck by a police cruiser while crossing the street defended his callous statement in a statement released Friday.
Officer Daniel Auderer claims his chilling laugh at the death of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula and his joke that the city should “write a check” were taken out of context during a private call he didn’t know was being recorded by his department-issued body camera.
The police had just responded to a fatal accident on January 23 and spoke with Seattle Police Officers Association President Mike Solan to inform him when he made the statement.
“He’s dead,” Auderer said before laughing. “No, it’s an ordinary person,” he said, referring to Kandula.
The young woman was struck and killed by a police car driven by Officer Kevin Dave, who was reportedly going 74 mph in a 25-mph zone while responding to a different “high priority” call.
Body camera video captures the sudden death of a woman struck and killed by a Seattle police car as she was crossing the street. Fox 13
Auderer, who is the vice president of the association, told Solan that he did not believe a criminal investigation was underway because Dave was not driving “out of control.”
At the end of the disturbing clip, Auderer says that the city only has to pay for the destruction caused by one of its officers: “Eleven thousand dollars. However, he is 26 years old,” he said, misrepresenting the victim’s age. “He has limited value.”
After learning that his insensitive slurs were in the department’s hands, Auderer submitted an Aug. 8 letter to the officers’ union defending his actions and asking for an expedited employee misconduct investigation, the union said Friday.
Officer Daniel Auderer of the Seattle Police Department is pictured in an undated image from police surveillance web resource OpenOversight
Auderer claimed he was responding to comments Solan made off-camera in which he questioned the lawyer’s “crazy” arguments for turning the tragedy around the value of human life.
“I responded with something like: ‘He’s 26, what’s the value, who cares,'” Auderer said.
“I meant the comment as a mockery of the lawyer – I was mimicking what the lawyer assigned to negotiate the case would say and being sarcastic to point out that they shouldn’t be making crazy arguments to minimize payouts.”
Auderer insisted that his laugh was meant to make fun of how the incident was being discussed before suggesting that he was unaware his private conversation was being recorded.
“I understand that without context the comments could be interpreted as horrible and rude. “Without context, the comment was insensitive to the victim’s family when in reality I was involved in a conversation regarding the flaws in the legal system,” he said.
The officers’ association supported Auderer’s claim of innocence, noting that the existing video that went viral after its immediate release failed to “explain the full story/context”.
Protesters came out in droves to call for Officer Daniel Auderer to be fired for laughing about Kandula’s death.USA Today
The association praised Auderer for coming forward about the footage a month before it was publicly released, adding that more details about the incident would be released.
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The footage was released by the Seattle police department “in the interest of transparency” a day after the fatal collision was also uploaded to the Seattle Police Department’s YouTube page.
Kandula’s family said Wednesday that it was “absolutely disturbing and sad to hear the ridiculous comments” made on the body camera footage.
The exchange student had arrived at Northeastern University in Seattle from India to pursue a master’s degree in information systems science in the College of Engineering. He was supposed to graduate in December.
“Jaahnavi was a beloved daughter and more than any dollar value to her mother and family,” the family said in a statement. “We strongly believe that every human life is priceless and [should] should not be underestimated, especially during a tragic loss.”
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco called the handling of Kandula’s death “deeply troubling.”
“We have taken strong action with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC for a thorough investigation & action against those involved in this tragic case,” the consulate said to Xformerly known as Twitter.
The fatal collision is being investigated by the Seattle Police Accountability Office, and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the incident.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
