Published Feb 12, 2026 | 12:24 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 12, 2026 | 12:24 PM
Jaahnavi Kandula.
Synopsis: The settlement, reached last week by the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, comes after Jaahnavi Kandula’s parents Vijaya Laksmi Gundapuneedi and Sreekanth Kandula, both residents of India, filed a lawsuit in September 2024 seeking ₹933 crore ($110 million) in damages.
Three years after a speeding police officer in Seattle killed Jaahnavi Jandula, a 23-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh, the US city has agreed to pay at least ₹246 crore (approximately $29 million) to her family.
Kandula, hailing from Adoni in Kurnool, was pursuing a master’s degree in information systems at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus when the tragedy occurred.
She was crossing Dexter Avenue at Thomas Street on the evening of 23 January 2023 when Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer Kevin Dave, responding to a drug overdose call, hit her whilst travelling at nearly three times the speed limit in a 40 kmph zone.
The settlement, reached last week by the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, comes after Kandula’s parents Vijaya Laksmi Gundapuneedi and Sreekanth Kandula filed a lawsuit in September 2024 seeking ₹933 crore ($110 million) in damages.
“Jaahnavi Kandula’s death was heartbreaking, and the city hopes this financial settlement brings some sense of closure to the Kandula family,” City Attorney Erika Evans said in a statement.
“We also recognise that her loss has left unimaginable pain. Jaahnavi Kandula’s life mattered. It mattered to her family, to her friends, and to our community.”
The case sparked international condemnation after body camera footage emerged showing another Seattle police officer, Daniel Auderer, laughing and making deeply insensitive comments about Kandula’s death whilst investigating the incident.
In bodycam footage released by the SPD, Auderer was heard laughing after the deadly crash and had remarked: “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 department’s Disciplinary Action Report said.
Auderer’s body-worn camera also captured him saying, “Yeah, just write a check. Just, yeah (laughter). $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.”
When asked at an Office of Police Accountability interview about his comments that Kandula had “limited value”, Auderer claimed he was “ridiculing the city attorneys who would be tasked with litigating a potential wrongful death lawsuit.”
The remarks ignited protests in Seattle and drew sharp responses from Indian diplomats, who demanded a thorough investigation. The incident became a flashpoint in discussions about the treatment of international students and the value placed on immigrant lives in the United States.
Chancellor Kenneth W Henderson of the Northeastern University where Kandula studied, too, condemned the officer’s insensitive remark.
The city’s civilian oversight body found that Auderer’s comments damaged the police department’s reputation and undermined public trust.
Auderer was pulled from patrol in September 2023 and reassigned to a “non-operational position.”
He was fired in July 2024 by interim police chief Sue Rahr and has since filed a ₹169 crore ($20 million) wrongful termination lawsuit against the city.
Kandula, who had left for the US in September 2020, was to graduate in December 2023. The university informed her family that she would be awarded the degree posthumously.
