Update: Man Stunned with Taser, Arrested After Trying to Leave Scene of Leash Law Violation

The latest on this story is available . 

Update, 6:42p.m.

The San Francisco Chronicle published new information.

According to the Chronicle, Howard Levitt, a spokesman for the parks service, said Gary Hesterberg was hit with a Taser after he gave a false name to a park ranger and tried to walk away from the scene of a suspected crime. 

The spokesman told the Chronicle that Hesterberg was arrested on suspicion of failing to obey a lawful order, knowingly providing false information and having dogs off-leash in a part of the park where it is prohibited. 

Levitt said the park ranger deployed her Taser only after she told Hesterburg to remain on the scene several times and pursued him for a while. 

The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and paramedics then responded to the scene and Hesterberg gave his real name, the Chronicle reported. 

Original post

A National Parks ranger allegedly shocked a Montara resident with a Taser and arrested him after an argument about his off-leash dog in the Rancho Corral de Tierra open space escalated Sunday afternoon. 

According to the Half Moon Bay Review, the incident allegedly occurred at 4:45p.m near the southern edge of McNee Ranch State Park, when the ranger stopped the man for letting one of his dogs off-leash, which is not allowed on certain parts of the property managed by the National Parks Service. 

The National Parks Service has not responded to the media at this time about the incident and the alleged arrest and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office says it does not have a report on the incident, despite the fact that the Half Moon Bay Review reports that a sheriff's deputy transported the man to county jail. 

Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Larry Schumaker said he could confirm that the National Parks Service had booked a man into jail in Redwood City shortly before 5p.m. yesterday, however. 

The man's wife contacted the Montara Dog Group after the incident looking for witnesses who could shed some light on what had happened to her husband, who hadn't returned that evening after the dogs were returned to her. 

"My husband took our two dogs out running late this afternoon, and the dogs were returned about 20 minutes ago by a couple of other dog walkers because my husband was detained by park security for having one of the dogs off leash," she wrote to the group in an email. "They couple that brought them home said my husband has subsequently been detained and Tasered when the person wouldn't identify themselves and Tasered him. I've determined it was a federal park police (I'm told) and he is being arrested. I was in such a panic that I didn't get their names or anything."

She has not yet responded to Pacifica Patch's call about the incident. 

Bill Bechtell, another Montara resident and founder of the Montara Dog Group, said he talked to the man who was arrested today. He said the man told him he'd been released at 1a.m. this morning.

Michelle Babcock said she witnessed the incident, and provided Bechtell with a detailed account.

"Since she [the ranger] did not respond as to why he was being detained nor tell him the type of jurisdiction she had over him, he started to walk away and she told him that she would tase him if he walked another step," Babcock wrote. "The man replied that he had a heart condition and to not taser him as it could be life threatening. He gave her his back to look at me and my husband in disbelief to what was going on and the park ranger fired her taser at him. The poor man fell to floor and you could see that he was in a lot a pain."

Stay tuned for updates.