Ex-Seattle officer who said woman run over by police ‘had limited value’ says he wasn’t mocking her death

A former Seattle police officer who was fired after making insensitive comments about a woman who was fatally struck by another officer’s cruiser in a crosswalk said he was “absolutely not” mocking the woman’s death when he said she “had limited value.”

Daniel Auderer was fired last month by interim Police Chief Sue Rahr for the comments he made in the hours after Jaahnavi Kandula was fatally struck in January 2023. Auderer, the elected vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, had been tasked with determining whether the officer who was responding to an emergency call when his speeding vehicle struck Kandula was impaired.

But he was recorded on his body-worn camera laughing while discussing the woman’s death and making remarks that Rahr said “displayed a cruel mockery of the sanctity of her life.”

He has insisted that his comments have been taken out of context.

“I spent too much time and seen way too many things to mock anyone’s death and I am horrified that her family is continually pounded by this story,” Auderer told conservative talk show host Jason Rantz on Monday. “It weighs on me and it’s something that will never ever go away in my soul.”

Auderer did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

Auderer recently filed a $20 million tort claim against the city. In the claim, filed July 25, he said that he was wrongfully terminated and retaliated against because of his union leadership. The guild did not immediately return requests for comment about Auderer’s claims and whether he still has any role with the union. Rahr said she had not listened to the interview and declined to comment, citing pending litigation and Auderer’s appeal of his firing.

Rahr wrote in a department-wide email last month that Auderer’s actions “have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the job of every police officer more difficult.” She also said that it was her duty to uphold the high standards necessary to maintain public trust.

After he tested the officer in January 2023, Auderer was recorded on his body camera video talking to police union President Mike Solan. The police department released video from Auderer’s body camera in September 2023. Auderer inadvertently left his camera on when he described Kandula as “a regular person,” suggested the department “write a check” and laughed on the call with Solan. Only Auderer’s statements are audible in the video. Kandula, who was from India, had been pursuing her graduate degree at Northeastern University in Seattle. She was 23.

“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said, incorrectly stating Kandula’s age. “She had limited value.”

The Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of police misconduct and makes disciplinary recommendations to the police chief, became aware of Auderer’s comments in August 2023 after it received a complaint from a concerned Seattle Police Department employee. Afterward, the guild said Auderer’s comments had been taken out of context and released a letter that Auderer had sent to the director of the Office of Police Accountability that same month — more than six months after Kandula was killed — after he learned about the video’s existence.

“I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers — I was 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,” Auderer said in the letter.

In his interview with Rantz, Auderer alleged that the Office of Police Accountability leaked the complaint that was made against him to the Community Police Commission to target him for his union activism. The Office of Police Accountability did not immediately responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Community Police Commission said it did not have a comment.