Officer fired after police dog attacks surrendering driver

A police officer in rural Ohio was fired Wednesday after he released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver on July 4 despite state troopers telling him to hold the K9 back.

The Circleville Police Department said that Officer Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and that his termination was “effective immediately.” His firing comes a day after the department said he was on paid administrative leave, which is standard during use-of-force investigations.

The town’s civilian police review board found that Speakman didn’t violate department policy when he deployed the dog, the department said in Wednesday’s statement, adding that the review board doesn’t have the authority to recommend discipline.

Department officials said they would have no further comment “at this time” because the officer’s firing was a personnel matter. Messages seeking comment from Speakman were not immediately returned.

The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn., a police union that Speakman belongs to, said Wednesday that he was fired without just cause and that the union had filed a grievance on his behalf.

Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog after a lengthy pursuit on July 4 that also involved Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers. The episode was captured on a police body camera.

Troopers had tried to stop a commercial semitruck that they say was missing a mudflap, but the driver failed to halt for an inspection, according to a Highway Patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called in to assist.

The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tenn., initially refused to get out of the truck and then defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the incident report and the body cam video. Rose, who is Black, eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.

The body camera video shows Speakman, who is white, holding back his K9, and a trooper can be heard repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” But Speakman deploys his dog, and the video shows it attacking Rose, who yells, “Get it off! Please! Please!”

Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.

He was charged with failure to comply, and did not respond to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Attorney Benjamin Partee, who is representing Rose, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

In audio recordings of 911 calls, Rose tells emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him are “trying to kill” him and that he doesn’t feel safe pulling over. He also says he’s confused about why the officers want to stop him and why they drew their guns when he initially stopped the truck briefly before driving away.

Rose told the Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”