Police arrested a man on suspicion of resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer after a fight at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Rosa Wednesday afternoon.
A police officer saw Santa Rosa resident Jorge Leopold Jr., 20, standing over a man and punching him around 2:30 p.m. in the DMV parking lot at 2570 Corby Ave., Sgt. Eric Litchfield said.
The victim and the group of people with him fled when the officer arrived, and Leopold refused to comply with the officer’s orders to sit down but kept moving away from the officer, Litchfield said.
At one point the officer struck Leopold in the arm with his baton when Leopold took something out of his pocket which turned out to be a cell phone, Litchfield. A large crowd of people began recording the incident on their cell phones, and some yelled at Leopold to sit down, Litchfield said.
The officer struck Leopold several times with the baton as Leopold kept backing away and resisted being taken into custody, Litchfield said.
Leopold sat down when another officer arrived in a patrol car, but he continued to resist being handcuffed and he was warned he would be shot with a stun gun if he didn’t comply, Litchfield said.
An officer used the stun gun and Leopold was arrested, Litchfield said.
Leopold suffered minor scrapes and bruises and he was treated at a hospital before being booked in the Sonoma County Jail for obstructing or resisting a police officer and battery on a police officer, Litchfield said.
One of the witnesses police interviewed at the scene shared his cell phone video of the incident with police, Litchfield said.
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