Current:Home > MarketsBodycam shows Seattle cop joking about "limited value" of woman killed by police cruiser. He claims he was misunderstood.-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Bodycam shows Seattle cop joking about "limited value" of woman killed by police cruiser. He claims he was misunderstood.
View Date:2024-12-23 15:32:58
A city watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following the death of a woman who was hit and killed by a police cruiser as she was crossing a street.
Daniel Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, responded to the Jan. 23 crash scene where another officer, Kevin Dave, struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, in a crosswalk. Dave was driving 74 mph on the way to an overdose call, and Auderer, a drug recognition expert, was assigned to evaluate whether Dave was impaired, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV reported.
Afterward, Auderer left his body-worn camera on as he called guild President Mike Solan to report what happened. In a recording released by the police department Monday, Auderer laughs and suggests that Kandula's life had "limited value" and the city should "just write a check."
"Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway," Auderer said, inaccurately stating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."
The recording did not capture Solan's remarks.
Neither Auderer nor Solan responded to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
However, a conservative talk radio host on KTTH-AM, Jason Rantz, reported that he had obtained a written statement Auderer provided to the city's Office of Police Accountability. In it, Auderer said that Solan had lamented the death and that his own comments were intended to mimic how the city's attorneys might try to minimize liability for it.
"I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers," Auderer wrote, according to KTTH. "I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy."
The station reported that Auderer acknowledged in the statement that anyone listening to his side of the conversation alone "would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life." The comment was "not made with malice or a hard heart," he said, but "quite the opposite."
The case before the Office of Police Accountability was designated as classified. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the details of Auderer's statement.
The station said Auderer reported himself to the accountability office after realizing his comments had been recorded, because he realized their publicity could harm community trust in the Seattle Police Department.
In a written statement on its online blotter, the department said the video "was identified in the routine course of business by a department employee, who, concerned about the nature of statements heard on that video, appropriately escalated their concerns through their chain of command." The office of Chief Adrian Diaz referred the matter to the accountability office, the statement said.
It was not immediately clear if both Auderer and the chief's office had reported the matter to the office, or when Auderer might have done so. Gino Betts Jr., the director of the Office of Police Accountability, told The Seattle Times the investigation began after a police department attorney emailed the office in early August.
Kandula was working toward graduating in December with a master's degree in information systems from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University. After her death, her uncle, Ashok Mandula, of Houston, arranged to send her body to her mother in India.
"The family has nothing to say," he told The Seattle Times. "Except I wonder if these men's daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life."
The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
The controversy over Auderer's remarks comes as a federal judge this month ended most federal oversight of the police department under a 2012 consent decree that was meant to address concerns about the use of force, community trust and other issues.
Another Seattle police oversight organization, the Community Police Commission, called the audio "heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive."
"The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety," the commission's members said in a joint statement.
Members from both the Community Police Commission and the African American Advisory Council said hearing Auderer laugh about Kandula's death reinforces a message to the people of Seattle that the department as a whole allows that type of behavior, KIRO-TV reported.
"This just taints it. Not only for Seattle officers but for every officer in our country. That shows you their culture. That some of us are valued and some aren't. Some lives are valued and some aren't and it doesn't look good," said Victoria Beach, chair of the African-American Community Advisory Council for the Seattle Police Department.
Beach has worked alongside Seattle Police for the last five years to improve race relations between Seattle Police and the community. She told KIRO-TV that the footage makes her stomach turn.
"I'm just feeling angry and saddened for the family. Could you imagine that being your loved one that they're mocking," she said.
- In:
- Seattle
veryGood! (337)
Related
- Suicides in the US military increased in 2023, continuing a long-term trend
- Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick leaves game against Jags with hamstring injury
- Richard Moll, 'Bull' Shannon on 'Night Court,' dead at 80: 'Larger than life and taller too'
- Richard Moll, 'Bull' Shannon on 'Night Court,' dead at 80: 'Larger than life and taller too'
- 5-year-old boy who went missing while parent was napping is found dead near Oregon home, officials say
- Deion Sanders after his son gets painkiller injection in loss: `You go get new linemen'
- Sailor missing at sea for 2 weeks found alive in life raft 70 miles off Washington coast
- Friends' Maggie Wheeler Mourns Onscreen Love Matthew Perry
- Ariana Grande Shares Dad's Emotional Reaction to Using His Last Name in Wicked Credits
- China launches fresh 3-man crew to Tiangong space station
Ranking
- 'Joker 2' actor pans DC sequel as the 'worst film' ever: 'It has no plot'
- Severe drought in the Amazon reveals millennia-old carvings
- Here's what Speaker Mike Johnson says he will and won't bring to the House floor
- RHOC's Shannon Beador Charged With DUI and Hit-and-Run One Month After Arrest
- West Virginia governor-elect Morrisey to be sworn in mid-January
- At least one killed and 20 wounded in a blast at convention center in India’s southern Kerala state
- 'Wait Wait' for October 28, 2023: With Not My Job guest Bernie Taupin
- C.J. Stroud's exceptional start for Texans makes mockery of pre-NFL draft nonsense
Recommendation
-
A herniated disc is painful, debilitating. How to get relief.
-
Parents of Liverpool's Luis Díaz kidnapped in Colombia
-
Unlikely hero Merrill Kelly has coming out party in Diamondbacks' World Series win
-
Unlikely hero Merrill Kelly has coming out party in Diamondbacks' World Series win
-
Northern Taurid meteor shower hits peak activity this week: When and where to watch
-
Adolis Garcia's walk-off homer in 11th inning wins World Series Game 1 for Rangers
-
Trade tops the agenda as Germany’s Scholz meets Nigerian leader on West Africa trip
-
Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte breaks MLB postseason hitting streak record