Seattle officer fired for ‘cruel comments and callous laughter’ following Indian grad student’s death, police chief says

A Seattle police officer has been fired over the “dehumanizing laughter” and “cruel comments” he made after the 2023 death of an Indian graduate student who was struck by a police vehicle, the police chief says.

A Seattle police officer has been fired over the “dehumanizing laughter” and “cruel comments” he made after the 2023 death of an Indian graduate student who was struck by a police vehicle, the police chief says. Seattle interim Police Chief Sue Rahr terminated former officer Daniel Auderer on Wednesday and justified her decision to the department in an internal email, attaching the department’s disciplinary action report alongside it. “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 in the internal memo, noting many in the community said Auderer’s “dehumanizing laughter” heard on video was “more outrageous and disturbing” even than Kandula’s death. “It is my duty as the leader of this organization to uphold the high standards necessary to maintain public trust,” Rahr wrote. “For me to allow the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonor to the entire department.” On January 23, 2023, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from Andhra Pradesh, India, was fatally struck by Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave’s police patrol vehicle while she on a crosswalk. Eight months after the incident, police released body-worn police camera footage that captured a phone conversation in which Auderer, the day after he was sent to the scene to examine if the officer whose vehicle hit her had been impaired, can be heard laughing, saying Kandula’s life had “limited value.” “But she is dead,” Auderer says on the body-worn camera footage, apparently in response to the person on the phone.