BATON ROUGE - Deputies with the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office report that a man in the Burbank area spat and cursed at them while resisting arrest on Sunday. 

According to an official report, deputies were dispatched to a bus stop near the Albertson's grocery store on Burbank Drive, where two men were engaged in a physical altercation.

Upon their arrival, deputies say one of the men claimed he tried to diffuse the situation by laying down on the nearby bus stop, but the other man, 54-year-old Leonard Crank, insisted on fighting and struck him from behind.

The man told deputies he was forced to defend himself as Crank continued hitting him.  

When deputies approached Crank for questioning, they said he at first pretended to be asleep, but after identifying themselves as officers of the law, Crank opened his eyes and exclaimed, "I'm an American citizen, I did nothing wrong."

When deputies asked Crank for identification, he allegedly refused to provide it; so, they warned him if he did not provide an ID of some sort, they'd be forced to detain him.

At this point, deputies say they attempted to arrest Crank and he struggled, cursed at them, and spat on at least one of them. 

Authorities say they later learned that Crank, a man who knew he was a carrier of HIV, spit on the deputy with the seeming intention of spreading the virus. 

Crank was arrested on charges of simple battery, resisting an officer, and intentional exposure to AIDS virus.

At this time, Crank remains in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.