US cop who laughed after Indian student's death fired

New York/Seattle: A Seattle police officer, whose insensitive comments and laughter following the death of an Indian student had caused outrage, has been fired.

Jaahnavi Kandula, 23, was struck by a police vehicle driven by Seattle Police Officer Kevin Dave as she was crossing a street on January 23, 2023. Dave was driving 74 mph (more than 119 kmh) on the way to a report of a drug overdose call. Kandula was thrown 100 feet when she was struck by the speeding police patrol vehicle.

In bodycam footage released by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the deadly crash and remarked that “Uh, I think she went up on the hood, hit the windshield, and then when he hit the brakes, flew off the car…But she is dead.” After making these comments, Auderer “laughed hard for four seconds,” the Disciplinary Action Report said.

Interim Chief Sue Rahr at the Seattle Police Department said in an internal email that the hurt Auderer’s words have inflicted on Kandula’s family “cannot be erased. The actions this individual police officer have brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the job of every police officer more difficult”.

Rahr said as the leader of the organisation, it is her duty to uphold the high standards necessary to maintain public trust. “For me to allow the officer to remain on our force would only bring further dishonour to the entire department. For that reason, I am going to terminate his employment,” she said in the internal email seen by PTI.