SEATTLE — A Seattle officer has been fired after he was heard joking and making insensitive comments after 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula was struck and killed by another officer responding to an emergency call in January of 2023.
In a letter to the Seattle Police Department, interim Police Chief Sue Rahr said the "impact" of Officer Daniel Auderer's actions "is so devastating that it cannot be mitigated by his intent to keep his conversation private."
"The hurt his words have inflicted on Ms. Kandula's family cannot be erased," Rahr wrote, adding that Auderer's actions "have brought shame" to the police department and the profession, making the job more difficult for every officer.
Internal police sources tell KING 5 that Rahr was strongly considering a 30-day suspension for Auderer. In the end, sources say she went with termination so as to not appear too lenient.
On Jan. 23, 2023, Auderer was dispatched to assist with a collision after another Seattle officer struck and killed Kandula while she was crossing the street in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. A traffic infraction was filed against Officer Kevin Dave, who was responding to an emergency call when he struck Kandula.
On body camera footage since made public, Auderer was captured on video saying, "but she is dead" and laughing while on the phone.
"She was 26 anyway," Auderer is heard saying in the video, misstating her age. "She had limited value."
After the bodycam video was brought to light, Auderer wrote a letter to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) where he explained he was not making fun of the death but instead mocking the callousness of the legal system.
The comments made by Auderer sparked public outrage.
Auderer was "administratively re-assigned to a non-operational position."
In January, Auderer's chain of command and the Office of Police Accountability found he acted unprofessionally, announcing he would face the highest disciplinary range of nearly two weeks suspension up to termination.
In her letter to the police department, Rahr notes Auderer is "well-regarded, if not beloved, by many of his fellow officers and supervisors." She writes he has done positive and noteworthy things and that "many of you will disagree with my decision, and perhaps be angry."
Rahr said in the email that she had to weight intent versus impact in making her decision.
In considering many factors, "there is no doubt that the named officer’s cruel comments and callous laughter about the tragic death caused deep pain to Ms. Kandula’s family, but also immeasurable damage to the public trust of police in the Seattle community, across the nation, and around the world," Rahr wrote.
KING 5 has reached out to the Seattle Police Officers' Guild and OPA for comment.