An Ocala man was tased after he allegedly spit in a deputy’s face while resisting arrest on a domestic battery charge last week.
Brandon Felix Diaz, 18, was charged with domestic battery, battery on law enforcement, and resisting an officer without violence after the incident, which happened around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Diaz was irate and yelling about being locked out of the house when a Marion County sheriff’s deputy responded to the scene. The deputy asked Diaz to stay outside the house while he spoke with the reporting party, but Diaz refused, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The reporting party said Diaz and an eyewitness were upset with her for getting home from work so late and not answering her calls. Diaz was very irate and was screaming at everyone inside the house. While the reporting party was gathering her things to leave the location, Diaz blocked her inside the bathroom and refused to let her come out, the report said.
The deputy requested multiple times for Diaz to move out of the way so the reporting party could exit the bathroom. Diaz became irate, got in the deputy’s face and started to spit in his face while approaching aggressively like he was going to hit him. The eyewitness tried to diffuse the situation by talking to Diaz asking him to move out of the area, but Diaz pushed the eyewitness and appeared to punch him in the face, according to the report.
The deputy told Diaz to place his hands behind his back, but he turned away and started to swing his elbows back and forth, striking the deputy in the chest/face area while knocking his glasses and body camera to the ground. The deputy told Diaz to stop resisting and that he was under arrest, but he continued to pull away. The deputy then deployed his taser, knocking Diaz to the ground, the report said.
Diaz was taken to the Marion County Jail, where he was held on $4,500. He is scheduled to appear in Marion County Court on March 24.