Interviews released of police union leaders laughing about student killed by speeding cruiser

SEATTLE - Documents and audio obtained by FOX 13 News reveal more details into the shocking conversation between Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan and SPOG Vice President Daniel Auderer, the morning after a speeding police cruiser fatally struck 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula in January.

Officer Daniel Auderer is heard laughing and joking about the graduate student from India, saying, "She was 26 anyway, she had limited value," to Solan in the video that has now gone viral since its release.

Documents say the Office of Police Accountability called Auderer and Solan for interviews in September to investigate the conversation.

Investigators questioned Officer Auderer for 13 minutes on Sept. 5, in which Auderer explains he and Solan were mocking city attorneys. When asked if he was laughing at the fact Kandula had lost her life, Auderer responds:

"No, you're not laughing over the death. You're laughing over the absurdity of it. People suddenly being here one moment and not the next. And as a police officer, you didn't really never get over that. So you start, you start to handle things in a way where she's dead. There's nothing anybody can do."

Auderer is asked if he understands SPD policy manual section 5.001 Standards and Duties—Officers will Strive to be Professional. He replies that he "understands it very well" and that he doesn't believe he violated the policy.

"No, I did not violate that policy. It was a private conversation, in a car alone, that just happened to be recorded by my camera turning on probably, when I made a U-turn or another car could have simply passed by, who knows why it went on, but it was a brand-new camera at the time," said Auderer.

An e-mail shows that OPA interviewed SPOG President Solan as a witness on Sept. 12.

Investigators asked Solan what he said on the phone to have Auderer laugh and make insensitive comments about Kandula.

Solan says he was remarking on "how the city is going to have to pay out a ton of money to the family in this tragic situation," going on to say:

"Then you're going to understand that there's another side to this understanding in the broad conversation that this is a tragic event. And the victim is going through a grieving process. But police officers, we deal with tragedy almost on a daily basis. And we're human beings just like the next person, but we have to process these in a manner that allows us to go to that next tragic event. And humor and sarcasm is used for us as a coping mechanism."

Lalita Uppala, Executive Director of Indian American Community Services says these interviews from both officers were not enough to explain Auderer's laugh that she describes as "callous, sarcastic and extremely painful."

"That laugh still rings in my ears, it rings in my community's ears, and it obviously rings in that family's ears that lost their daughter," said Uppala.

She says Auderer's video ripples beyond the South Asian community.

"It's not about us being Indian immigrants, it's about us being residents of Seattle."

After the viral video was released, Uppala started this petition calling for more police accountability.

Since it was created in September, Uppala says it has seen a huge response with more than 14,000 signatures collected so far.

SPD met with IACS and several AANHPI non-profits in late September, but she says there's been a lack of updates since their meeting.

She says there needs to be a bigger conversation on how SPD engages with the community and addresses policing culture within the department.

"If this is how you treat devastating death, then we are concerned, and we want answers in terms of how are you changing the culture within the police department," said Uppala.

The OPA provided this statement to FOX 13 News on Monday:

"OPA will not provide other comments about the case until its conclusion to maintain and protect the investigation's integrity."