Officer caught on bodycam laughing, joking over death of grad student struck by another cop
A police accountability office is investigating Officer Daniel Auderer.
Newly released bodycam shows officers discussing an incident where a graduate student was struck and killed by a police car, KOMO reports.
SEATTLE — A Seattle police accountability office is investigating after an officer was recorded on his body camera joking over the death of a 23-year-old woman who was fatally struck by another officer who was responding to a call.
Graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula was in a crosswalk the night of Jan. 23 when an officer struck her with his patrol SUV, police said. The officer, Kevin Dave, was driving 74 mph moments before the collision, according to the Seattle Police Department’s investigation report provided to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Dave was responding as an emergency medical technician to a “priority 1” emergency call at the time, police said.
Officer Daniel Auderer responded to the scene to evaluate Dave and determined he did not show any signs of impairment, according to the investigation report.
In newly released body camera footage, Auderer can be heard discussing the incident while on the phone in his cruiser.
“He’s going 50 [mph]. That’s not out of control. That’s not reckless for a trained driver,” Auderer said during the phone call, which according to the video’s timestamp occurred on Jan. 24.
The other person he is talking to cannot be heard during the call.
After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, Auderer says, “But she is dead,” and laughs several seconds later.
Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, “Yeah, just write a check,” followed by laughter.
“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway,” he said, misstating Kandula’s age. “She had limited value.”
The Seattle Police Department on Monday released the footage, saying the video was identified by a department employee who was “concerned about the nature of statements heard on that video” and brought it to the chief’s office.
Following a review of the video, the chief referred the matter to the police department’s independent Office of Police Accountability to determine “any policy violation that might be implicated,” the police department said in a statement on Monday.
The department released the video “in the interest of transparency” due to public concern, but said it cannot comment on its substance pending the completion of the Office of Police Accountability’s investigation.
“SPD has been in touch with the family of the victim pedestrian and continues to honor their expressed request for privacy,” the department said. “As others in the accountability system proceed with their work, we again extend our deepest sympathy for this tragic collision.”
Auderer is vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, the police union that represents Seattle officers, according to the Seattle Community Police Commission, a citizen oversight board.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from the Seattle Police Officers Guild or Auderer to a request for comment on the video.
The Seattle Community Police Commission’s co-chairs called the phone call “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive.”
“After Detective Auderer is heard confirming that the pedestrian died, he is laughing in response to the person on the other end of the call,” the co-chairs — Rev. Harrier Walden, Rev. Patricia Hunter and Joel Merkel — said in a statement. “He joked that her life was only worth $11,000 and ‘had limited value.'”
In what was believed to be a private conversation, Auderer showed “unprofessional and inhumane conduct,” the statement continued.
Kandula was from India and was working to earn a master’s degree in information systems from Northeastern University’s Seattle campus when she died.
Dave had his patrol SUV’s emergency lights and siren on at the time of the collision, police said.
According to the investigation report, a responding officer reported that Dave appeared to be “visibly shaken” at the scene.
“Lights were on, was chirping the siren as I was headed down. She was in the crosswalk, she saw me, she started running through the crosswalk. Slammed on my brakes. Instead of staying back where she should before crossing, she just zips,” Dave told the officer, according to the report.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Dave to a message seeking comment on the case.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the incident to make any charging decision. The Office of Police Accountability is also investigating.
‘I took action … I took her life,’ 16-year-old football player charged with murdering pregnant girl
Aaron Trejo was the father of the 17-year-old’s unborn child, authorities said.
ByJulia Jacobo and Rachel Katz
December 11, 2018, 9:24 AM
0:15
Football player arrested in slaying of high school cheerleaderBreana Roushselang was 6 months’ pregnant at the time and found in a dumpster near her home, police in Indiana said.
WBND
A 16-year-old has been charged with killing a pregnant classmate and her unborn child, of whom he was the father, authorities say.
Aaron Romeo Trejo allegedly stabbed Breana Rouhselang, 17, to death Saturday night and discarded her body in a dumpster near her home in Mishawaka, Indiana, according to a charging document filed in St. Joseph County Superior Court on Monday. Trejo will be charged as an adult under state law.
(MORE: Teen charged with murder smiled, laughed after stabbing victim to death: Reports)
Rouhselang was reported missing by her parents Sunday morning around 4:30 a.m., according to the court document. Her mother told police that she was six months pregnant and had gone behind their home to talk to the father of her child around 11 p.m. on Saturday, police said
When Rouhselang’s mother woke up around 1 a.m. Sunday, she became concerned and went to Trejo’s home several blocks away to ask where her daughter was, but Trejo told her that Breana did not show up to speak to him in the alley behind her home, the affidavit stated. Trejo also allegedly told the worried mother that “he had lost his cell phone so she could not call him back later.”
Rouhselang’s mother then called police after continuing to search for the teen and contacting her friends, police said.
(MORE: Teen missing for a year after witnessing murder found alive in Ohio basement)
Investigators went to talk to Trejo again, “since he may have been the last one to see or talk to Breana,” but he reiterated that she was not there when he went to talk to her, according to the court document.
Police then instructed Trejo to send a message to Rouhselang’s phone, to which he replied that he did not have a service plan and only had WiFi, police said. Trejo did have a service plan, the affidavit states.
When investigators surveyed the alley behind Rouhselang’s home, they found glasses and a hat with what appeared to be blood on it, police said. They then located more blood throughout the area and located Rouhselang’s body in a dumpster behind a nearby business — a black plastic bag covering her head and upper torso, according to the charging document.
Police then transported Trejo and his parents to the station for questioning and asked him “what he knew about last night and Breana’s whereabouts, the affidavit states.
(MORE: Teen may have been killed during modified game of Russian roulette, authorities say)
Trejo stated that “he had reached out to Breana for the first time in months to see how she was doing with the pregnancy” and that she had agreed to meet him, but was not there when he walked to her home, police said. Trejo indicated that he waited around for a few minutes and then went home after Breana did not reply to a message he sent her, police said.
During the interrogation, Trejo stated that “neither he nor Breana wanted to have the baby” and that he had no idea where she was, according to the court document.
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The detective then informed Trejo that the physical evidence would not support his story and asked if he and Rouhselang had fought over the pregnancy.
“Aaron Trejo quietly said, ‘Yes,'” before explaining that “Breana waited too long” to tell him about the pregnancy for her to be able to get an abortion, the affidavit states.
Trejo then allegedly admitted to stabbing Rouhselang in the heart with a knife he brought from home, police said. He allegedly said he chose to use the knife “because he thought it would kill Breana quickly,” according to the charging document.
“I took action….I took her life,” Trejo allegedly told police, the affidavit states.
Trejo told police that he then put Rouhselang’s body in the dumpster and threw her phone and the knife as far into a nearby river as he could, according to the court document.
Trejo also admitted he brought the black plastic bag he used to cover Rouhselang’s head from home, knowing he would use it “for that purpose,” police said.
He had been planning on killing Rouhselang and the baby for about a week, police said.
An autopsy determined that Rouhselang died from multiple stab wounds and that her scarf had been “tied so tightly that strangulation was occurring before Breana died,” the charging document states. The manner of her death was ruled a homicide, police said.
Trejo is charged with one count of murder and one count of feticide, or the destruction or abortion of a fetus, according to the court document.
In a statement, the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office said that “probable cause” was found to arrest Trejo.
Trejo is being held without bond and will be arraigned on Tuesday. He has not yet entered a plea, and it is unclear if he has retained an attorney.
He will be charged as an adult, according to an Indiana statute that states juvenile courts have no jurisdiction over murder cases involving defendants 16 or older.
Trejo is a football player for Mishawaka High School, and Rouhselang was the team’s manager, ABC South Bend/Elkhart affiliate WBND reported.
ABC News could not immediately reach a representative for the School City of Mishawaka for comment.
Seattle officer recorded joking about woman’s death, saying ‘she had limited value’
Updated September 14, 20232:57 PM ET
A Seattle Police Department vehicle in 2021.
Ted S. Warren/AP
In bodycam footage released this week, a Seattle Police officer is heard making callous comments about a young woman who died after she was struck in a crosswalk by an officer responding to a call.
The footage was recorded on January 24, the morning after Seattle police officer Kevin Dave hit 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula with his vehicle while he was driving 74 miles an hour in a 25 mph area, responding to a reported overdose.
In the footage, Seattle police officer Daniel Auderer, who is vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, is heard speaking to someone on the phone. Only Auderer’s side of the conversation can be heard. He was reportedly speaking to Mike Solan, who is president of the guild, known as SPOG.
Seattle Police Department YouTube
Auderer talks about the crash, saying “it does not seem like there’s a criminal investigation going on.” Auderer, a drug recognition evaluator who works on the SPD’s DUI squad, was part of the post-incident process of the crash, screening Dave for impairment.
“I mean, he’s going 50. That’s not out of control, that’s not reckless for a trained driver,” Auderer says. “Yeah, lights and sirens.”
“I don’t think she was thrown 40 feet, either,” Auderer says.
A report by the SPD’s traffic collision investigation squad later found that Dave had been driving at a peak speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone. Investigators concluded that Dave struck Kandula with his Ford SUV at approximately 63 miles per hour, and Kandula was thrown approximately 138 feet.
In the video, Auderer is heard laughing, apparently at something his interlocutor says.
“Yeah, just write a check,” Auderer says, chuckling. “$11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value.”
The Seattle Police Department said in a statement that the video was “identified in the routine course of business by a department employee” who “appropriately escalated their concerns through their chain of command to the Chief’s Office.”
The matter was then sent to the Seattle Office of Police Accountability “for investigation into the context in which those statements were made and any policy violation that might be implicated,” as required by SPD policy and the city’s accountability ordinance.
The Seattle Office of Police Accountability (OPA) said in a statement to NPR that on August 2, it “learned about an SPD officer’s comments about Jaahnavi Kandula’s tragic death” and immediately opened an investigation. It says it will not comment further on the case until its conclusion to maintain and protect the investigation’s integrity.
The Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC), another oversight group, called Auderer’s comments and laughter “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 group’s co-chairs said in a statement.
Auderer reportedly says he was mocking city lawyers
NPR’s attempts to reach Auderer were not successful. But according to a report by Jason Rantz, a conservative Seattle radio host on KTTH, Auderer filed an account of his own to the Office of Police Accountability once he learned his comments had been recorded by the body cam.
According to the KTTH report on Auderer’s account, during the call, Solan (the SPOG president) “stated something to the effect that it was unfortunate that this would turn into lawyers arguing ‘the value of human life.’ ” The SPOG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Auderer reportedly told the Office of Police Accountability that his comments were made to mock city lawyers, “imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment.”
“I do understand that if a citizen were to hear it that they would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of a human life,” Auderer told the office, according to KTTH. “I also understand that if I heard it (it) could diminish the trust in the Seattle Police Department and make all of our jobs more difficult. With all that being said, the comment was not made with malice or a hard heart. (It was) quite the opposite.”
Details of the incident
Witnesses said that Kandula broke into a run as she saw the car speeding her way. The investigation into the accident found that “Had Ofc. DAVE been travelling 50 MPH or less as he approached the intersection and encountered [the victim] and Ofc. DAVE and [the victim] responded in the same manner; this collision would not have occurred.”
Kandula was to graduate in December with a master’s degree in information systems from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University, The Seattle Times reports, and had been working to support her mother in India. The university says it will award Kandula her degree posthumously and present it to her family.
“The family has nothing to say,” her uncle, Ashok Mandula, told the newspaper. “Except I wonder if these men’s daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life.”
