NU COMMUNITY REACTS TO MOURNS THE LOSS OF

By Sonel Cutler, Emily Spatz, Val O’Neill, Marta Hill and

On Monday, Sept. 11, body camera footage of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of 23-year-old Northeastern Seattle student Jaahnavi Kandula in January sparked national outrage after it was released by the Seattle Police Department.

By the end of the week, Kandula’s name was recognized across the country. Students, activists and people from Seattle to Boston shared posts, threads and videos under the hashtag #JusticeForJaahnavi.

To many, the video, in which a supervising officer says Kandula, an information studies master’s student, was “of limited value” and appears to laugh about her death, epitomized years of misconduct and abuses of power by the Seattle Police Department, SPD.

In the days following the release of the footage, the Northeastern community reacted with outrage and frustration. The following is The News’ coverage of the incident as it unfolded, edited for clarity and length.

Sept. 11: Release of body cam footage

Recently released police body camera footage showed SPD officer Daniel Auderer, laughing, joking and minimizing the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a graduate student studying information systems in the College of Engineering at Northeastern’s Seattle campus.

Kandula was struck by SPD officer Kevin Dave Jan. 23, who was driving his police cruiser at 74 mph in a 25 mph zone when he hit Kandula while she was walking in a crosswalk, according to an SPD investigation report.

“It’s a regular person … yeah, just write a check,” Auderer, who is the vice president for the Seattle Police Officers Guild, or SPOG, said in the footage recorded the day after the collision while on the phone with SPOG President Mike Solan. “Eleven thousand dollars, she was 26 [sic] anyways, she had limited value.”

Kandula’s family released a statement to Fox 13 Sept. 13 calling Auderer’s comments “disturbing and saddening.”

“Jaahnavi is a beloved daughter and beyond any dollar value for her mother and family,” the family said. “We firmly believe that every human life is invaluable and should not be belittled, especially during a tragic loss.”

Auderer, who was hired by the SPD in 2008, was assigned to evaluate Dave for signs of impairment on the night of the accident, according to the report. According to OpenOversight, a web database that collects information on officers’ disciplinary records, Auderer had 18 complaints investigated by the Office of Police Accountability, or OPA, between 2014-2018.

Four out of 18 complaints were sustained, which included violations of use of force and professional standards policies.

According to an SPD statement included in Auderer’s body camera video, the footage was identified “in the routine course of business by a department employee” who was concerned about the statements and “appropriately escalated their concerns through the chain of command to the Chief’s office.”

The chief then recommended the video to the OPA, who are currently investigating whether Auderer violated SPD policy.

According to reporting by The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, a conservative talk radio show which reportedly obtained the complaint against Auderer, the officer’s body camera was accidentally turned on during his conversation with Solan.

He allegedly self-reported his comments to the OPA once he realized the conversation was recorded.

According to KTTH, Auderer wrote that he was mocking “crazy” arguments city lawyers could make in “[a case] like this.”

“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 self-reported statement to OPA. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I have watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.”

Seattle’s Community Police Commission, or CPC, an independent group that provides community input on police reforms, called the video “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive” in a statement released on their website.

“The reported explanation that he was mocking lawyers does not make this unprofessional and inhumane conduct any better because it shows — in what was believed to be a private conversation with SPOG leadership — a callus dismissiveness towards police accountability systems,” the statement said.

Joel Merkel, co-chair of the CPC, said the video is reflective of the culture within the SPD community and is problematic because Auderer showed disregard towards a victim and mocked matters related to police accountability.

“If this is their view on some of the members of their community, how is that impacting their work?” Merkel said in a phone interview with The News. “How are they treating community members [of different backgrounds]? We don’t know.”

SPD did not respond to questions from The News regarding whether Auderer or Dave were still on duty or whether disciplinary actions had been taken against Dave.

The SPD expressed “deepest sympathy for the tragic collision” in their video statement and said they have been in touch with the family of the victim.

“The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety,” CPC’s statement said.

Sept. 13: Northeastern Indian student association responds to footage, call on Northeastern to condemn Members of NU Sanskriti, Northeastern’s Indian student association, called on university administration Sept. 13 to condemn the actions of a SPD officer after the release of body camera footage showed the officer minimizing the death of a Northeastern student.

“Since she was an Indian student [on] NU Seattle campus, I think it becomes our responsibility as Indian Students’ Association, catering to more than 9,000 Indian students on campus, to ask questions about events that happened after the incident in January and to take up the responsibility of Indian Students on campus,” read NU Sanskriti’s emails to Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun and Chancellor Kenneth Henderson, which were also sent to The News.

In the footage, Auderer describes and laughs at the incident that killed Kandula on the phone with Solan, president of the SPOG.

“Everyone that I know was moved and saddened by that video of him chuckling and laughing and calling her ‘of limited value,’” said Gaurav Mishra, a recent graduate of Northeastern’s master’s program in electrical and computer engineering and long-time member of NU Sanskriti.

“It was not good. It was like an attack on everyone — not just any Indian, but everyone.”

NU Sanskriti called on university administrators to do more to support the Indian student populations in Boston and across Northeastern’s satellite campuses.

“It’s been eight months and we see very little that has come out in this regard from Northeastern leadership. And this is coming from a leadership which has been very, very proactive in calling out all the social injustices pretty quickly,” Mishra said. “I don’t know what agenda they have [in] their head, but for us, this is just as equally important to other issues that they amplify from the president’s office.”

Northeastern’s lack of official response initially to the incident was disheartening, members of NU Sanskriti who spoke with The News said, as it leaves them feeling unsupported and not cared for within the Northeastern community.

According to the club’s email, they have received “numerous” requests to take up this issue with the university’s leadership.

“In the video released by Seattle Police we can hear the officer saying that the girl had ‘limited value.’ This is honestly what we feel as Indians on campus every day. From unnecessary frowns from [the Northeastern University Police Department] to absolutely no stationary place to express ourselves, it is deeply saddening that Northeastern had not done anything publicly to condemn this incident,” NU Sanskriti’s email read.

“It’s really obvious how people are feeling — people, my friends, everybody is sharing that post … so it’s really obvious, the reaction of the Northeastern community,” said Devansh Mehta, a master’s student in advanced and intelligent manufacturing and the treasurer for NU Sanskriti.

Sept 14: Northeastern administration and student government respond to footage

In an email to all students, staff and faculty Sept. 14, Henderson called the remarks made in the recently released body camera footage by Auderer “callous and insensitive,” and promised upcoming campus gatherings “to allow our community to join together in harmony.”

“This week, Jaahnavi’s friends and loved ones

— Statement from Kandula family

Jaahnavi was an international student who came to this country, like many of us in the crowd today, really pursuing her dreams and those dreams were tragically cut short earlier this year. She traveled half the world to be here in the United States, she left her family, she left the comforts of home, and that takes real courage. It takes ambition, and that tells us a lot about who Jaahnavi was.

—

Ken

Henderson, chancellor, at memorial ceremony

Jaahnavi is remembered as a stellar student and a delightful and effervescent human being. She was a close friend to many and friends shared that they loved her bubbly laugh, sense of humor, and infectious personality.

— Dave Thurman, dean of Seattle campus in a January

statement