New Delhi: Northeastern University plans to posthumously grant a degree to Jaanhavi Kandula, the Indian-origin student tragically killed in a collision involving a Seattle police patrol vehicle, as per an ANI report.
“The university plans to award Jaahnavi her degree posthumously and present it to her family,” the university stated on its Facebook page.
Northeastern University added that the friends and loved ones of Jaanhavi are enduring the “additional pain” of new developments related to this tragedy. It also called the remarks by the Seattle police officer “callous and insensitive”.
Months after her passing, the tragic incident captured the public’s attention when a body-worn camera recording emerged, revealing two union leaders from the Seattle Police Department making callous jokes about her unfortunate demise.
Kandula, originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh, was in the final stages of her master’s degree programme at the South Lake Union campus of Northeastern University.
Earlier on September 11, the Seattle Police Department released footage from Officer Daniel Auderer’s body camera. Auderer left his body camera on after responding to the South Lake Union area, where a marked patrol vehicle driven by another officer, Kevin Dave, struck and killed Indian-origin woman Jaahnavi Kandula, according to an NBC News report.
A day after the incident, the police said that the officer had been responding to a “priority one call.” In the footage, Auderer, who serves as vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, is driving and can be heard talking about the accident that involved 23-year-old graduate student Kandula in a call with the guild’s president, Mike Solan.
In the video, Auderer can be heard saying, “she is dead” before bursting out into laughter. Referring to Kandula, Auderer said, “No, it’s a regular person.” Towards the end of the clip, he can be heard saying, through bursts of laughter, “Yeah, just write a check. Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” misstating the age of the victim.
“He further said, ‘She had limited value,’” the New York Post reported. Auderer said that he did not believe a criminal investigation was being carried out. He said, “I mean, he was going 50 mph. That’s not out of control. That’s not reckless for a trained driver.”
However, a report released in June revealed that Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25-mph zone while responding to a different “high-priority” call, NBC News reported, citing KIRO 7.
Since the video was released, people have been calling out the police officers.
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco has raised concerns over the handling of the Indian-origin woman, Jaahnavi Kandula, who was killed by a police vehicle, and has demanded a thorough investigation and action against those involved.
(With ANI Inputs)