NON APOLOGY

Seattle Cop Gives Wild Justification for Mocking Grad Student Killed by Fellow Officer

Absent from Officer Daniel Auderer’s statement is the word “sorry.”

A police officer in Seattle issued a tasteless non-apology after being caught laughing and mocking the death of a college student who was killed by another cop believed to have been speeding at the time. After a fellow officer hit and killed 23-year-old Northeastern University graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula, Officer Daniel Auderer responded to the devastating scene and joked via radio to a colleague that the city ought to just issue a check: “Eleven thousand dollars,” he said. “She had limited value.” After realizing his comments were being picked up by his own bodycam, Auderer penned a letter of defense to his police union which was released Friday. His justification: he didn’t know he was being recorded at the time, and also his comments were taken out of context as he was simply mocking how a lawyer would react in the situation—that part of the conversation was apparently not picked up by the body cam. “I understand that without context the comment could be interpreted as horrifying and crude,” he wrote. “The comment was not made with malice or a hard heart, quite the opposite.” Kandula was “a beloved daughter and beyond any dollar value for her mother and family,” her family said in a statement. “We firmly believe that every human life is invaluable and [should] not be belittled, especially during a tragic loss.”