The Seattle Police Officers Guild released a statement on Friday, apologizing to the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, while arguing that comments made by one of its officers following her death were taken out of context.
The statement comes days after bodycam footage was released, where Seattle Police Officer Daniel Auderer, who is vice president of the guild, can be heard laughing, and seemingly making jokes about Kandula, the 23-year-old struck and killed by police earlier this year while walking in a crosswalk.
"Yeah, just write a check," Auderer can be heard saying in the bodycam footage. "$11,000. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value," he says, misstating her age.
In the statement, the guild says they “feel deep sorrow and grief for the family of Jaahnavi Kandula as this video has revictimized them in an already tragic situation as they continue to mourn her death. We are truly sorry.”
The Seattle Police Officers Guild statement also includes Auderer’s report to the Seattle Office of Police Accountability, where the officer argues his comments were meant to refer to the “callousness of the legal system.”
In the statement to OPA, dated Aug. 8, Auderer explains that he was on his way home after learning about the fatal accident that killed Kandula when he called the president of the police union, Mike Solan. Auderer had been tasked with looking for any signs of impairment involving Kevin Dave, the police officer who hit Kandula in January, while responding to a reported overdose. Dave was driving 74 miles an hour in a 25 mph area.
Auderer writes that his bodycam inadvertently turned on while he was talking to Solan.
“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 wrote in the statement.
Auderer continues: “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. I also understand that if heard it could diminish the trust in the Seattle Police Department and make all of our jobs more difficult.”
The Seattle Police Department has said that it learned about the comments made in the bodycam footage from a department employee who discovered it in the “routine course of business” and "appropriately escalated their concerns through their chain of command to the Chief's Office."
The Seattle Office of Police Accountability said it opened an investigation into the matter on Aug. 2 – nearly a week before it received the report from Auderer. The Seattle Office of Police Accountability has investigated Auderer numerous times, according to media reports.
A growing number of leaders in Seattle have criticized the police union, and hundreds gathered on Thursday night in South Lake Union to demand police accountability.
On Friday, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant called for the firing of both Auderer and Solan. City Councilmember Tammy Morales, meanwhile, has cited what she calls a pattern of abuse at the Seattle Police Department, and urged Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz to take action. The Seattle Police department had been under federal oversight since 2012 for the excessive use of force until most aspects of the decree ended earlier this month.
In its own statement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said: "We said then that ending federal oversight does not mean 'mission accomplished.' These disgusting comments, in addition to footage released over the summer showing that a mock tombstone of Damarius Butts, another person of color killed by SPD officers, was on display in a precinct, further prove that SPD is not a transformed organization."
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released a letter that he sent to Kandula’s family. In it, the mayor said he wants to make it clear that “the comments made by one person do not reflect the feelings of our city or the communities that call it home.”
The mayor's office said legally he can't comment further on the case until the Seattle Office of Police Accountability completes its investigation.
The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability has said it’s working with state legislators to give the Attorney General the power to hold police departments accountable for systemic misconduct.
