Jadarrius Rose, 23, is seen on video during the July 4 traffic stop with his hands up surrendering to police before an officer deployed his canine.
A police dog mauled a Black man in Ohio during a July 4th traffic stop after he surrendered to authorities with his hands raised in the air following a “lengthy pursuit,” according to officials.
A Motor Carrier Enforcement inspector with the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) attempted to stop 23-year-old Jadarrius Rose who was driving a semi-tractor trailer because it “was missing a left rear mud flap,” according to an incident report. Rose was traveling westbound on U.S. Route 35 and failed to stop for the inspector and troopers who were called in for help.
Stop sticks were deployed twice on the vehicle before it came to a stop on U.S. Route 23.
“After several times of being ordered to exit the vehicle, the suspect exited the vehicle from the driver’s side door,” the incident report stated. “The driver was given orders to get down on the ground and the suspect would not comply.”
Rose can be seen on video released by the OSHP standing in front of troopers with his hands in the air.
An officer with the Circleville Police Department who has a K9 with him can be heard telling Rose to “go on the ground or you’re gonna get bit.” Meanwhile, a trooper with the OSHP is telling Rose to “come to me.”
It was then that the Circleville Police Department officer, identified as “R. Speakman,” deployed his K9.
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Once they get him stopped, get him out of the vehicle, and have his hands up, he’s surrendering. He got multiple conflicting commands…and with the presence of the dog he was rightfully concerned they were going to have it tackle him…that’s exactly what happened. So his concern about the dog probably caused him to ignore a command or two, because he was fearing the dog attacking him. Take the dog out of the equation and he probably surrenders peacefully and obeys commands. Conflicting commands and the presence of the dog are absolutely the problems here.
They will be put on paid leave and any lawsuit filed will be thrown out because of qualified immunity…even though the dog never should have come out of the holding vehicle. Could have a case of excessive force, but I doubt it. All of it will be excused as part of the police work, even the mauling.
The scenario you describe, and a limitless spectrum of other possibilities that could exist during any encounter, are the source of so much frustration for me when these events come up.
The person being interacted with could be exceptionally fearful, panicked, on drugs, drunk, having a medical event, deaf, experiencing mental health issues, severely autistic, or just stupid.
YET that person, who could be ANY of those things or more, becomes a justified target for violence the moment they fail to comply with an order that they may not be capable of understanding, or may be too deep into their own circumstances to understand or even process.
Meanwhile, the police they interact with who are (presumably, ostensibly) sober, well trained, mentally well, have backup available, and have a number of different options available to them, will always get a free pass for taking the opportunity to deploy that violence until and unless there’s enough public outcry to force some action, and sometimes not even then.
How does that not strike anyone who reads it as an unacceptable framework for policing?