Advocates push for accountability one year after grad student run down by Seattle cruiser

One year ago this week, 23-year-old graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula was struck and killed by a speeding police cruiser in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

Police bodycam footage released in September drew global outrage after a police union leader who responded to investigate, Officer Daniel Auderer, joked about Kandula’s death, saying to a fellow union leader that Jaahnavi’s life had “limited value.”

In a recommendation announced Tuesday, the Office of Police Accountability (OPA), a police watchdog group staffed by both civilians and SPD sergeants, called the comments and actions “callous.”

The group's director, Gino Betts, said Auderer’s words were “derogatory, disturbing, and inhumane.”

Betts said the comments “undermined public trust in the department, himself, and his colleagues.”

Officer Auderer said in a statement that he was imitating and mocking what he saw as the coldness of city lawyers.

Kandula was hit by a police cruiser traveling well above the speed limit. The car was moving at 74 mph in a 25 mph street, before slowing to 63 mph moments before Kandula was hit.

The OPA recommendations are a separate from an investigation by King County Prosecutors Office into the driver of the car, Officer Kevin Dave.

In a press release announcing the recommendation, the OPA stated that the officer who joked about Jaahnavi’s death had violated SPD’s professionalism and bias-based policing policy. Whether the police department will take any further action is still unknown.

Executive director of Indian American Community Services (IACS), Lalita Uppala expressed cautious optimism about the OPA's findings.

"We want to know what is the Seattle Police Department going to do with these findings?" Uppala said. "What is Mayor Bruce Harold's office going to do with these findings? How are we going to address emergency responses and the police's role in our communities?"

Representatives from Indian American Community Services have testified and met with organizations and leaders from across the region after Kandula’s death, including talking with the Community Police Commission earlier this month.

"When you hear another officer minimize the life of somebody from a minority or marginalized community, it hits your heart," said Sriram Rajagopalan, who is volunteering with IACS. "How do we heal when we keep hearing this kind of stuff again, and again and again?"

Listen to Soundside’s full conversation with IACS' Sriram Rajagopalan, Bipasha Mukherjee, and Lalita Uppala by clicking the play icon at the top of this story.