Seattle police officer fired over ‘vile’ comments after death of Indian woman

SEATTLE — A Seattle police officer has been fired after making insensitive comments about the death of an Indian college student after she was struck by another officer’s vehicle in a crosswalk last year.

Seattle Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr fired Officer Daniel Auderer on Wednesday over comments he made in the hours following the January 2023 death of Jaahnavi Kandula. The Seattle Times reported.

Rahr wrote in an email to the entire department on Wednesday that it was her duty to maintain the high standards necessary to maintain public trust, saying Auderer’s actions “have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the job of every police officer more difficult.”

Her decision came after Gino Betts Jr., the civilian director of the Office of Police Accountability, recommended that Auderer be fired for unprofessional conduct and bias in recorded statements.

Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he supported Rahr’s decision. He and the chief acknowledged that it would likely be appealed and go to arbitration, and that it could impact the department’s efforts to end more than a decade of federal oversight of officer accountability.

“This incident has damaged the public trust that we have worked to build since Day 1 of my tenure,” Harrell said.

Auderer is the elected vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which represents about 900 rank-and-file officers. An email from The Associated Press to the guild seeking comment was not immediately returned.

In a disciplinary action report Rahr explained the reasons for her decision, saying in Auderer’s presentation at the disciplinary hearing that he recognized his words were hurtful, that he was “shocked” to know what they meant to the young woman’s family, and that he wished he could bear their pain. He concluded with a “sincere apology,” the chief wrote.

As she thought about it, however, she told him “your cruel and heartless laugh” and the pain inflicted on Kandula’s family could not be measured. Auderer has been an officer since 2009, and Rahr also said she has received a number of messages of support for Auderer from his colleagues.

Auderer argued that the conversation he had with union president Mike Solan after Kandula’s death was private and never intended to be tapped. Rahr wrote that his intention to keep his comments private was not sufficiently mitigated given the devastating consequences of his actions.

Betts and the department staff made a recommendation to then-Chief Adrian Diaz in January that Auderer be fired or suspended without pay for 30 days, the department’s most severe punishment short of termination.

Auderer met with Diaz in May before the chief imposed disciplinary action, but Harrell’s Diaz’s demotion and Rahr’s appointment Later that month, the interim chief postponed the action.

Auderer, 49, was assigned to the traffic division when he became involved in the investigation into Kandula’s death on Jan. 23, 2023. He responded to the scene in South Lake Union to determine whether Kevin Dave, the officer driving the car that struck Kandula, was under the influence.

Dave was driving 74 mph (119 km/h) in a 25 mph (40 km/h) zone on his way to an overdose call and began braking less than a second before he hit Kandula, according to a report from a detective with the department’s Traffic Crash Investigation Team. It determined that Dave was driving 63 mph (101 km/h) when he hit Kandula and his speed did not give either of them time to “detect, address and avoid a hazard that was present.”

Prosecutors in King County, Seattle, said in February that they would not file a felony charge against Daveciting insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dave willfully disregarded safety. Dave was cited by the Seattle City Attorney’s Office and fined $5,000 for negligent driving.

The investigation is ongoing. Dave has been transferred to an administrative role within the department.

Auderer examined Dave and determined that he was not disabled. Auderer then called Solan, the union president. The end of Auderer’s two-minute conversation was captured on his bodycamwhich he didn’t know ran.

Auderer can be heard laughing after stating that Kandula is dead, falsely saying she was “only 26,” and that her young life had “limited value” and that the city should simply write a check for $11,000.

The conversation went unnoticed until last August, when police officers heard audio from his bodycam.

Backlash to Auderer’s comments was swift, including condemnation by the government of India, Kandula’s home country. The public outcry also led to the police reassign him to desk work pending the outcome of the internal investigation into his comments.

Auderer and Solan have maintained that their conversation concerned union business and was taken out of context — saying it showed disdain for a legal process in which civil attorneys would argue and try to put a dollar value on Kandula’s life. Solan also claimed that the OPA investigation amounted to union bashing.

Betts concluded that it was “immaterial” whether the recording was unintentional and that the subject matter, union affairs, did not justify its content.

“For many, it confirmed, rightly or wrongly, the belief that some officers undervalue and conceal perverse views about members of the community — reinforced by the fact that the base’s most highly elected officials participated in the call,” Betts wrote in his findings, which also sharply criticized Solan’s unwillingness to cooperate with the OPA investigation.