Armed ex-mayoral candidate robs Dollar General, leads FL cops on chase, feds say
Whitfield Leland III, 45, entered the store in Tallahassee on May 20, 2024, while masked and brandishing a gun at a Dollar General manager and demanding him to open the two safes, according to court documents and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida.
A customer called 911 and Tallahassee police 'surrounded the store' on Brevard Street minutes later, prosecutors said.
While inside, Leland pointed his pistol at a second employee, according to court documents, before prosecutors said he stole the manager's store shirt and put it on to disguise himself as a worker.
Leland fled the store in the manager's shirt and ignored officers' commands to stop, leading them on a chase, according to prosecutors.
With money 'falling out of his pockets,' Leland left behind a trail while running from police, prosecutors said.
Officers following the money trail found Leland hiding in bushes, with more money 'stuffed into his pants,' according to prosecutors.
When Leland, still in the Dollar General shirt, followed officers' commands to step out of the bushes, he had 'more cash' that 'fell out of his pockets,' prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Leland was sentenced July 25 after pleading guilty to interference with commerce by threat or violence, in violation of the Hobbs Act, brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and being an armed career criminal in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
His court-appointed federal public defender, Joseph Frans Debelder, and Dollar General did not immediately return McClatchy News' requests for comment July 28.
Leland, who was accused of stealing $689 during the Dollar General robbery, ran as a Tallahassee mayoral candidate in 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Describing Leland as a '13-time convicted felon,' prosecutors said he had been previously convicted of three violent offenses.
This includes two convictions of resisting a law enforcement officer and one conviction of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to prosecutors.
Besides his federal case, he was most recently convicted of grand theft of more than $300, but less than $5,000, Florida court documents show.
'Thanks to the quick actions of our officers and strong collaboration with our federal partners, a repeat violent offender is off the streets,' Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said in a statement on his federal sentence.
Leland, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, was a known activist in the city as well as the executive director of Round Table Community, a nonprofit organization.
During his mayoral campaign, Leland said poverty was a major issue plaguing the state capital.
'Poverty is a big issue that may seem unimportant to well-to-doers,' Leland told the Tallahassee Democrat. 'Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to help the least among us to become a greater community together.'
Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey won the city's mayoral race in 2022, when he was re-elected. Daily was first elected as mayor in 2018.
After his 22-year prison sentence, Leland will serve five years of supervised release, according to prosecutors. He was also ordered to pay restitution by the judge.
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