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A K-9 handler from Ohio, Circleville gets fired after he was seen in a body cam video releasing his police dog to attack an unarmed black man.
The Circleville Police Department revealed, in a CNN report, that the officer, Ryan Speakman, has been terminated from the department.
In their statement, the police department said, “Circleville Police Officer Ryan Speakman’s actions during the review of his canine apprehension of suspect Jadarrius Rose on July 4 show that Officer Speakman did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers.”
The July 4 incident happened when the police attempted to pull over a commercial semi-truck for inspection. After a lengthy pursuit, the suspect, Jadarrius Rose, willingly surrendered to the authorities.
However, in the body cam video released by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Speakman was seen releasing his police dog on Rose, despite the latter surrendering, with his hands up.
A state trooper can be heard saying over and over again, “Do not release the dog with his hands up. Do not release the dog.”
The video also shows Rose screaming and crying “get the dog off of me…please…please…get it off.” And towards the end of the video, Rose was seen on the ground, being treated by the officers for the bite wounds he sustained.
Rose can be heard asking, “You just let a dog bite me?” and the police officer said, “All you had to do was come to me.” Which the 23-year-old answered by saying, “I was coming. With all the guns pointed at me, how do you expect me to respect you?”
Following the incident, Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine, called for an increase training for all police dogs and their handlers in the state during a news conference on Tuesday, July 25.
He said, “This incident in Circleville should be a lesson, a wake-up call to everyone that police training in Ohio is not equal. It needs to be equal.”
Meanwhile, Shallow Creek Kennels, the Pennsylvania-based facility that trained the police dog involved said that their protocols “are standard for service dogs”.
And that they are used by the US military, Customs and Border Protection, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as police departments across the US and Canada, according to the police statement as reported by CNN.
According to The Washington Post, Rose was taken to the Ross County Jail after being treated, and was released on July 7.
The fate of the police dog involved is unknown. But the central Ohio Black Lives Matter organization is calling for the dog to be retired, along with race sensitivity training and other requests, according to ABC News.
