Former Tallahassee mayoral candidate arrested in connection with Dollar General robbery

Court records show the 2022 mayoral candidate was arrested after allegedly robbing a Dollar General store and trying to disguise himself as an employee before fleeing with cash in his pockets.

Police found 44-year-old Whitfield Leland by following a trail of money spewing from his pockets to where he was hiding in a wooded area at the intersection of North Bronough and West Georgia streets.

Leland was arrested Monday on multiple charges, including aggravated assault, grand larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and resisting officers without violence. He is being held at the Leon County Detention Center.

Monday morning to the store at 327 W. Brevard St. a massive police force arrived, said Trinyan Mariano, who briefly witnessed the law enforcement response.

The Tallahassee Police Department and Leon County Sheriff’s Office surrounded the business with armed officers and deputies, and roads were blocked in all directions, Mariano said.

She said that while she stood nearby and observed the situation for about 10 minutes, nothing seemed to happen, but law enforcement officers were hanging around nearby and apparently trying to talk to someone who was standing at a side door.

Court records show a customer called 911 after seeing Leland pull a firearm from a manager at the register, throw it down, and then run out of the store through the emergency exit.

The manager, “shocked” 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 register and lie on the ground. Shortly thereafter, Leland told him to open the safe, but the manager informed Leland that “the safe has been delayed and will not be opened immediately.”

“The suspect replied, ‘I should have remembered last time,’” sources say.

Court records show Leland realized police had arrived, took off his Dollar General embroidered manager’s shirt and put it on, then fled through an emergency exit into the parking lot with his hands in the air.

Police initially thought he looked like an employee based on the shirt he was wearing, but say a foot chase began after Leland fled into the parking lot and behind Grace Mission Church.

Court records show that at the time the incident report was prepared, the amount he stole was not established.