Former Tallahassee mayoral candidate arrested in armed robbery of a Dollar General store
A 2022 mayoral candidate was arrested after allegedly robbing a Dollar General store and attempting to disguise himself as an employee before escaping with cash stuffed in his pockets, according to court records.
Police found Whitfield Leland, 44, by following a trail of cash spewing from his pockets that led to where he was hiding in the wooded area at the intersection of North Bronough and West Georgia streets.
Leland was arrested Monday on multiple charges including robbery with a firearm, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and resisting an officer without violence. He is being held in the Leon County Detention Facility.
A massive police presence arrived Monday morning at the retail store at 327 W. Brevard St., said Trinyan Mariano, who briefly witnessed law enforcement's response.
The Tallahassee Police Department and the Leon County Sheriff's Office had the business surrounded with armed officers and deputies, and the roads in every direction were blocked off, Mariano said.
She said nothing seemed to be happening while she stood nearby and watched for roughly 10 minutes, but law enforcement officers were moving around and appeared to be trying to talk to someone from a side door.
According to court records, a customer called 911 after seeing Leland pull a firearm on the manager at the check-out line and rack it before running out of the store through an emergency exit.
The manager, "shaken" and "in fear for his life at the time of the incident," later told police in an interview that Leland held him at gunpoint, ordered him to open the cash register and lay on the ground. Shortly after, Leland told him to open the safe, but the manager informed Leland the "the safe was delayed and would not open right away."
"The suspect responded, 'I should have remembered from the last time,'" records say.
Realizing that police had arrived, Leland removed the manager's shirt, which had Dollar General embroidery, and put it on before fleeing through the emergency exit into the parking lot with his hands up, according to court records.
Police initially thought he appeared to be an employee based on the shirt he was wearing, but police say a foot chase ensued after Leland took off running through the parking lot and behind Grace Mission Church.
According to court records, the amount of money he stole was undetermined at the time the incident report was written.
Leland was a political unknown in 2022 when he ran for Tallahassee mayor. He finished a distant third place in a four-person August primary, getting a little over 5% of the vote.
Leland has been paid small sums of money for work on the campaigns of Rudy Ferguson, who’s running for City Commission Seat 1, and Kenneth Preston, who’s running for Leon County property appraiser.
Campaign finance reports show Ferguson’s campaign paid him $65 last November for consulting and $100 on March 6 for get-out-the-vote efforts. Preston paid him a total of $110 for campaign labor last year.
Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Former Tallahassee mayoral candidate arrested in Dollar General hold-up
