At about 10:48am Thursday, Turlock Police Officer De La Cruz attempted to make a bicycle stop at Fast Stop Liquor in the 300 block of W. Canal Drive.

Instead of stopping for De La Cruz, the bicyclist, later identified as Michael Sano, 44, of Turlock, began to flee and made obvious actions and statements of non-compliance.

“Officer De La Cruz was able to eventually contact the suspect in a parking lot, at which time the suspect dismounted the bicycle and took a fighting stance,” said Sergeant Inderbitzen. “The suspect punched Officer De La Cruz and a TASER was deployed.”

After a brief struggle, Sano was taken into custody and American Medical Response was requested to check him out due to the use of force.

Sano was transported to Doctors Medical Center for medical clearance.

Afterward, Sano was booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on charges of attempting to deter or resist an executive officer by means of threat or violence, battery against a peace officer inflicting injury, and two counts of resisting a peace officer.

The original reason for the stop was for riding on sidewalks, in violation of the Turlock Municipal Code.

This wasn’t Sano’s first time not going with the program when contacted by police and he’s locally flagged for being hostile toward law enforcement.

Back in February after being stopped in a vehicle for running a red light, Sano got upset with the officer who stopped him for opening his door and refused to give up his identification card. Sano became hostile and continued his hostility with assisting officers as well until having TASERs pointed at him. Eventually, he was arrested and released on a citation that morning for driving without a valid license.