The truck driver who was mauled by a Circleville Police K-9 while surrendering after leading officers on a chase, spoke for the first time to Good Morning America Friday morning.
“I just didn’t wanna die. That was what was going through my mind,” Jadarrius Rose said.
The officer who released the K-9, Ryan Speakman, has since been fired. His former department said he did not meet the standards and expectations they hold for their police officers.
Rose said he did not pull over because he was afraid of being shot. He first called his mother.
“I told him to pull over — when he looked out and saw they had jumped out their vehicles with their rifle cocked at him, he pulled off,” said his mother, Carla Jones.
He then called 911.
"Yes, I’m, right now — I have police officers following me for like a long time, and I’m trying to figure out why they got their guns pointed at me, and I’m just a truck driver,” Rose said to 911 dispatchers.
The problem, according to an incident report, is that the commercial truck Rose was driving was missing a left rear mud flap.
"I don’t know why they’re trying to kill me,” he said.
Officers eventually threw stop sticks on the ground beneath Rose’s truck — spiked strips intended to puncture tires and force a motorist to stop.
“They’ve got their guns ready to shoot me,” Rose said.
Video shows the subsequent moments when police caught up with Rose as he exited his truck. Fellow officers told Speakman multiple times to keep control of his dog.
“Do not release the dog with his hands up!" one officer can be heard saying.
Though Rose did have his hands in the air, Speakman released the dog. It first went toward other officers before turning and attacking Rose.
"Do not! Do not! Get the dog!" officers yelled during the chaotic fracas.
The video appears to show the dog maintaining its grip on Rose for more than thirty seconds.
Rose and his attorney, civil rights advocate Ben Crump, want more to be done.
“Justice for Jaddarius is trying to make sure that officers who sick dogs on unarmed Black people are held accountable,” Crump said.
Rose is still charged with felony failure to comply.
ABC News reached out to the fired officer for comment but did not hear back.
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