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Who is Ryan Speakman? Ohio officer placed on paid leave after unleashing K-9 on unarmed surrendering truck driver

An Ohio cop who was using a police K-9 to attack an unarmed Black man is currently on paid leave while the incident is being investigated

CIRCLEVILLE, OHIO: The mayor of Circleville, Ohio, revealed that an officer who was caught on camera using a police K-9 to attack an unarmed Black man as he turned himself in to the authorities is currently on paid administrative leave while the incident is being investigated. On Monday, July 24, Mayor Don McIlroy named Ryan Speakman as the Circleville police officer who unleashed the dog. The mayor informed CNN that the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave.

According to the highway patrol case report and video made available by the agency, Jadarrius Rose, 23, suffered a bite by a Circleville police dog on July 4 after a protracted car chase that started when officers sought to pull over a commercial semi-truck they claim refused to stop for an inspection. According to the mayor and Police Chief G Shawn Baer in a joint statement on Friday, the incident is being looked at by a use of force review board, and the results are expected to be made public next week.

Who is Ryan Speakman?

Ryan Speakman is the Circleville, Ohio, police officer who deployed the police K-9 that attacked the unarmed truck driver, Rose, who was surrendering to the authorities. An inquiry "into his actions during and after (Speakman) released a K-9 as part of the arrest of a semi-truck driver on July 4," per a Circleville news release, led to him being on leave. Speakman joined the Circleville Police Department in February 2020.

Speakman used his police dog during a protracted pursuit on July 4 that engaged troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and came to an end close to the town. A police body camera filmed both the pursuit and the resulting attack. According to an Ohio State Highway Patrol incident report, the chase started when troopers attempted to stop an industrial semi-truck that had disappeared from a mudflap and refused to stop for an inspection. Authorities claim a K9 police dog from the adjacent Circleville Police Department was sent in to help.

Why did Ryan Speakman unleash the K-9?

According to the Highway Patrol investigation report and the body cam video, the 23-year-old truck driver from Memphis, Tennessee, initially resisted getting out of the vehicle and later disobeyed orders to get on the ground. A State Highway Patrol officer ordered Rose to approach him and Speakman told him to get down at the same moment. The K-9 is seen being held back by Speakman on the body camera footage, and a trooper can be heard repeatedly shouting, "Do not release the dog with his hands up!" off-camera. However, Speakman unleashes the dog, which is shown attacking Rose in the video.

According to Mitchell Christian, a licensed police and military K-9 trainer who looked through dashcam and body camera footage of the event, police dogs are not taught to kill or have "life-altering effects." Their degree of force is comparable to that of a Taser, and they are trained to assist cops in safely apprehending a criminal, he continued.

Rose was accused of not complying and hasn't replied to an email sent on Monday seeking clarification. Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers chasing him were "trying to kill" him and that he didn't feel safe pulling over, as per audio recordings of 911 calls. Rose stated in response to a media query over the video: "I'm just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened."

'Put that cop in jail'

As the body cam video went viral, the Ohio cop's actions were severely criticized online. One Twitter user said, "No excuses. Put that cop in jail. Pathetic weak men with stronger dogs than them should not be police." A second user seethed, "The mayor called this "an unfortunate situation" instead of a racial attack. Meanwhile, the officer is on paid administrative leave, If a citizen directed his dog to attack on an officer, what would he call it?" A third wrote, "You can see the video jump 20seconds in the top right corner, must of been more brutal than showed. They will never gain respect with unnecessary frequent brutality." Someone else wrote, "They all cowards. Passively saying “don’t release the dog on him with his hands up” doesn’t absolve any of them of complicity. “Good cops” sat there and watched."