Brandon Leohner, a 27-year-old resident of 20 Bunker Lane in Palm Coast, was arrested Tuesday on charges of kidnapping after taking the toddler he has in common with his girlfriend and driving off against his girlfriend’s wish. He drove recklessly through Palm Coast, with the child unsecured on his lap, and was arrested after a violent encounter with deputies and a police dog at McDonald’s on State Road 100.
The couple had argued, but the confrontation did not turn physical except to the extent that Leohner was handling the child. The couple had just ordered pizza, and when a neighbor walked in, Leohner became paranoid, according to his girlfriend’s account to law enforcement, and accused her of setting him up. It’s not clear why from the Sheriff’s Office’s heavily redacted incident report.
But the report’s narative clearly suggests Leohner may have paranoid episodes. Before he drove off, he walked around his Nissan, opened all the doors, walked around it as if he were suspicious of something, looked over his shoulder, and finally sat at the Nissan’s wheel with the baby. The baby started to scream.
“Give me my baby! Give me my baby!,” his girlfriend yelled. Leohner shut the car door and drove off, or sped off, leaving his girlfriend in hysterics over her baby’s fate.
A Flagler County sheriff’s deputy quickly spotted the vehicle speeding down Belle Terre Parkway at around 80 miles per hour, running red lights, causing numerous vehicles to swerve to avoid a collision–all with the baby in Leohner’s lap. The incident report states neither father nor child wore seat belts: any sudden stop could have severely injured the child.
Stuck in slow traffic, Leohner then made a U-turn through the median at Easthampton Boulevard, across from the Publix shopping center at the south end of Belle Terre Parkway, again causing several other vehicles to swerve to avoid collisions. Leohner sped north, then again made a U-turn at the emergency turn-off for Fire Station 25, his driving reflecting the same paranoia he’d displayed in his home’s driveway in the B-Section.
A sheriff’s deputy in an unmarked vehicle observed the turns. The deputy had not turned on emergency lights until seeing the Nissan travel at 65 miles per hour back south near Easthampton. That deputy pursued Leohner as he sped down to State Road 100, where he evaded stop sticks, then drove into the Target shopping center and the McDonald’s parking lot.
Leohner “immediately exited the vehicle while holding [the baby] in his arms,” the incident report states, as if “utilizing him as a shield,” according to the deputy’s account. Body cam video footage recorded the encounter.
Two deputies approached Leohner from opposite directions as he held the baby, one with his Taser drawn, the other with a police dog, Keanu, on a short leash. “Show me your fucking hands, dude. Put the baby down! Put the kid down! Put the kid down!,” the deputy pointing the Taser yelled before firing the Taser moments later even as Leohner had the baby in his arms. Leohner fell forward onto the pavement.
Leohner was aware enough to brace his fall with his hand, which likely prevented serious injury to the baby, who started screaming and was almost immediately picked up by one of the deputies, who tried to comfort him. “Dada, dada,” the baby is heard saying on the video. The deputy who fired the Taser explained in the incident report that he did so as a result of Leohner fleeing recklessly and showing no regard for other human life as he did so, and for not putting down the child after being told six times to do so. (One Taser prong landed on his abdomen, the other on a leg.)
Leohner’s girlfriend had told law enforcement that he had a gun in the vehicle, kept in the center console. Leohner threw out the gun into a swale on State Road 100 by Target as he drove. At McDonald’s, he was holding the baby with his arms and gesturing as he weaved against a wall of the restaurant, cornered.
Keanu immediately attacked him after the baby was removed and is seen biting his leg in a video frame, as the baby cries, points to his father and calls out repeatedly, “dada, dada.”
Leohner, barefoot and showing signs of bites and Taser prongs to his legs, is heard yelling out “why” a few times as he is told to stop resisting and several deputies are securing him or warning him that he will get Tased again if he does not comply. According to the deputy’s account, Leohner “continued to resist and attempt to evade arrest by crawling under a citizen’s vehicle,” then “crawled out from under the truck near the rear passenger seat and stood to his feet and continued to resist by pushing deputies away in the McDonald’s parking lot.”
Some of the deputy’s descriptions is visible in the video footage, as is Leohner, with his arms up, appearing to elude deputies. One of the deputies chasing him was the handler of Keanu, who was still nipping at Leohner. Leohner wouldn’t be the first person terrified by an attacking German Shepherd: the dog continued to attack him until he fell with one of the deputies grounding him, and deputies swarmed on him.
The body cam footage shows him on his stomach, with five deputies on him and yelling for him to put his hands behind his back. His legs and feet were feet bare as he seemed to struggle, though immobilized by the deputies. Just then the dog handler allowed the dog to attack his leg again and bite down violently enough to draw blood as another deputy briefly held both his ankles. The dog bit down fully for 16 seconds as Leohner screamed in agony, before his handler stopped him.
Leohner’s girlfriend did not want kidnapping or other charges pressed, which may make parts of the case more difficult to prosecute. He was charged with kidnapping, child neglect without great bodily harm, fleeing and eluding police, all felonies, as well as reckless driving and resisting an officer with violence.
A sheriff’s office-issued release stated he was also charged with “using a child as a shield,” but there is no such offense under Florida law. Holding a child “for ransom or reward or as a shield or hostage” is a definition of the kidnapping charge when a child under 13 is involved. It is a first-degree felony.
Leohner had not yet been booked at the county jail by Wednesday evening, having been admitted at AdventHealth Palm Coast because of the injuries he sustained during his encounter with deputies. At the hospital, he told deputies where he threw his gun, a Glock, which deputies retrieved.
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Clutching my Pearls says
The deputy fired the taser while the guy still had the baby in his arms?!?!? WTF!
A.j says
The baby sreaming da da. A child should never go through anything like this.
Meg says
Omg. So true. The father caused this trauma to his own child. What a scumbag!
The ORIGINAL land of no turn signals says
The piece of trash girl friend didn’t want press charges against him.Next time call yo momma not the police.
Jennyds says
What a freaking dirtbag. I hope the mom can face some consequences as well since she doesn’t want to persue charges against this scumbag. That poor baby deserves better parents than he was given. Anyone who would put their child at risk deserves to loose rights to them and as for the mother she’s sounds just as worthless as the dad if she isn’t wishing to pursue charges. What a shame.
Justahunch says
Something is going on in this town. He was tased with a child in hand. When they finally did have him on the ground, with the amount of men on him, they could’ve moved his hands behind his back or waited until he tired out. But instead it was the ol’, “Stop resisting!” performance over and over when he was clearly already restrained. Still, after his restraint the other deputy let the dog munch on the man’s leg. No pro-cop troll farm PR machine can clean that up in the YouTube comment section. Who pays for that kind of damage control anyway? As far as being labeled as “paranoid” goes, that’s where the FBI needs to get involved and dig deep into these guys. This town appears to have a network of creeps sitting in cars and following people while at the same time a growing network of surveillance cameras. They don’t try and hide it either. I’ve personally experienced this and it seems more of an attempt at psychological manipulation or “sensitizing” than anything else. If Brandon was legit with no history of psychological issues or drug history, then something set him off. Why did he allegedly accuse his girlfriend of a “setup?” What was it that drove him to the point of running off with his kid in full on panic mode? Glad he and the child are alive but once the deputies got him out of the car, this arrest could’ve been handled differently… unless that’s the end game.
Esq….. says
Exactly, looks like the kidnapper is going to get paid. Abuse of power at its best.
Bret Young says
Absolute Police brutality!!!! The media is wrong for writing such a one sided story
Ash says
This sounds very slanted *brutally attacked, he used his baby as a shield, he stopped being a father in that instant. He wouldn’t stop kicking, which is why the dog attacked.
The got the baby to his mother safely ffs.
Esq…. says
I believe what most educated people are saying is that the officers had numerous chances to get that toddler from him. They tasted him while he was carrying that baby which could have killed him or her, AND, they held him down and then allowed the k9 to attack him.
Sera says
What numerous chances? I didn’t see any alternative to the tasing. This dirtbag traumatized his own kid for whatever stupid reason he had.
D says
Where were the numerous chances with the psycho that already was on a speeding poloce chase with a baby in his lap? Could they have reached into the speeding car with the raging lunatic? Is that one of the “numerous chances” “educated people” saw before he was “tasted” him?
Was there a point where he complied and I blinked where the man offered the child to them safely? Or was he continuing to endanger the child every moment he continued to have him?
Will “educated people” also magically see the gun the lunatic imagined he saw the officer had on him when he was on the pavement? Did they hear him comply and stay still after the baby was taken away from the idiot?
I’m just wondering what other pretend things your type of “educated people” clearly viewed.
Charles says
Some adults don’t deserve having children. This is another example of that.
namelyPointless says
To the people saying this man is evil and doesn’t deserve basic decency, please think further than a headline into this. This man clearly was quite unwell and was terrified in the moment as any sane person would be. He fully believes he has been “set up” by someone he trusted and rightly thought the police were there to hurt him (as they very much did). The police, ever careful as they are, pinned a man in a paranoid freakout to the ground then gently moved a dog into place to rip open his leg, all the while screaming at him. He had four fully grown men in body armour on him, they were in complete control of that situation. Instead of trying to deescalate, the cops decided to further hurt the man who was clearly suffering. All you have to do in this moment is move his arms, hold him, and wait for him to calm down. Screaming directly into his ears to tell him to “put your hands behind you back” just actively terrifies the man. This is not a “win”. This is not some save-the-day story about some cops who caught the bad guy. This is a mentally unwell father having a paranoid attack while four men of similar mental stability edge him on and hurt him.
Austin says
I completely agree with you on this. The man was not all there mentally and immediately screaming at him and pointing a taser at him was not the right choice. Like you said instead of holding him down while putting his arms behind his back they release their dog on him. He’s not gonna calm down while a German Shepard is chewing on his leg. This is how it should’ve been done, reason with him instead of shouting, keep the taser in your back pocket, he cooperates and hands the baby over, he drops to the ground and is arrested. There! Instead now he’s in the hospital with a gashed leg. Could’ve been done a lot better. Goes to show how shitty this town is getting.
Meg says
Did he sound or look at all like “reason” would have worked? This is a paranoid guy who believed his gf set him up. He checked to make sure his car was not wired with a bomb or whatever it was he was afraid of. He’s not in his right mind and reason would not have affected him. He wouldn’t have done this in the first place if it could. He’s either mentally I’ll or high on meth. Given that this is florida, I vote for the latter.
Meg says
It’s called meth. Which is NOT a mental illness
Me says
Coward police! No empathy! Yes you can see he was scared of the police. Was hiding behind his child. Probably didn’t think. They would tase him. With child in hand! MAGA loving crazy police