SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle police officer violated policing standards when he made callous remarks about the death of a graduate student from India who was struck by another officer’s vehicle in a crosswalk last year, the city’s Office of Police Accountability said this week.
Police Chief Adrian Diaz will decide on discipline, which could include termination, for officer Daniel Auderer after members of the chief’s chain of command discussed the findings and recommendations from the watchdog group at a disciplinary hearing that was held Tuesday, The Seattle Times reported. Auderer is also vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.
Civilian OPA Director Gino Betts Jr. did not announce his discipline recommendations. They were sent to Diaz, who must justify his findings in writing if they differ.
The watchdog group had been investigating Auderer since September, when police officials heard audio from his body camera recorded hours after the death of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck and killed in a crosswalk by officer Kevin Dave’s SUV on Jan. 23, 2023.
Dave was driving 74 mph (119 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone on the way to an overdose call and started braking less than a second before hitting Kandula, according to a report by a detective from the department’s traffic collision investigation team. It determined that Dave was going 63 mph (101 kph) when he hit Kandula and his speed didn’t allow either of them time to “detect, address and avoid a hazard that presented itself.”
The vehicle’s emergency lights were activated and Dave “chirped” his siren immediately before the collision, the report said, adding Kandula was thrown 138 feet (42 meters).
A criminal investigation is pending. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office hired an outside firm last fall to review the police investigation. Its results are expected within a few weeks.
Betts concluded in his report that Auderer’s statements — in which he laughed,…
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