According to the New York Post, an investigation has been initiated into Seattle police union executives after an officer was videotaped on his body camera smiling and joking about an Indian-origin lady who was killed by a police patrol car in January of this year.
Officer Daniel Auderer can be heard addressing the inquiry into the tragedy involving graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula, who was murdered by his colleague, Officer Kevin Dave, on January 23 in the video released on Monday. The 23-year-old was a master’s student at the Seattle campus of Northeastern University.
In the video, Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer can be heard saying, “She is dead,” before bursting out laughing and referring to Ms. Kandula as a “regular person.” “Yeah, just write a check,” he added amid bouts of laughing. 11 thousand bucks.”
The clip ends with him saying: “She was 26 anyway, she had limited value”, getting her age wrong.
Following the release of the video, the Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) issued a statement calling the exchange between Mr Auderer and his colleague “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 CPC added.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Police Department, which released the footage “in the interest of transparency,” stated that it would not comment on the event until the Police Accountability Office completed its investigation.
Ms. Kandula, a native of Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool region, died after being hit by a Seattle police patrol vehicle in South Lake Union.
According to the Seattle Police Department, the officer driving the marked patrol SUV was traveling northbound on Dexter Avenue North when he and the Seattle Fire Department responded to a “priority one call.” According to the statement, the female pedestrian was crossing from east to west in the crosswalk when the vehicle struck her.
Initially, Auderer stated that the cop was driving his car at 50 MPH and was not “out of control.” However, the police investigation eventually revealed that the automobile was traveling at 74 mph when it collided with Ms Kandula. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office reports that.
Jaahnavi Kandula was a Northeastern University student in South Lake Union who was on pace to graduate with a master’s degree in information systems this December.