

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.
I never go to theaters with reserved seating. It's a movie, not a damned sporting event.
I swear that was the actor Seymour idiot that committed suicide supposedly….
On another note. Haven’t been to a theater since mandatory seating
Smaller theaters like that have you pick your seats when you buy your ticket. I'm sure this all started when the person who purchased that seat asked him to move and he acted like a child and that person asked management for assistance.
And they don't say a word to the guy with his nasty ass feet on the seat in front of him. It was going good until he put on his pedo raincoat.
Those are reclining seats. Like the ones you would have on a LazyBoy couch.
yeah he's acting like the kneegrow in the coach seat behind you that got on standby.
Usher is a power hungry phagot, you should of let it slide.
yeah goodbye and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Must have been a special showing of Broke Back Mountain.
Doesn´t he look the part...
Store food and weapons !
You don't want to be standing in "food lines" with these people .
.
I "kid you" there won't be any food for those lines to be used for .........
.... black leather trench coat....
been to tinseltown on beltway 8 back in the day? we had fools f'ng in the back rows!
oh snaps... i remember that place...
If you want to stick up for that fat phaggot in the red pajamas and rubber trench coat go ahead. I'm with the chic, Seems like you're
the one that would rather hear a fat boy fart instead of a pretty girl sing. You can sit on that fat bastard's lap for all I care only the co ck ain't gonna be in your mouth.
man i can't wait for dr strange 2!
When I lived in Hong Kong, all the theaters had what's being called assigned seating. You selected what seat you wanted from a chart of the theater when you bought your ticket. You could even buy a ticket days in advance for a film you wanted to see. I loved that system as it prevented all the idiocy of people rushing inside trying to outdo others in a scramble for the best seats. It also meant you didn't have to stand in huge lines. As is, the only time theater staff would take issue with you (even in a mostly empty theater) is if you tried to switch from a cheap seat to an expensive one. For example, the seats closer to the screen were the cheap seats and the seats in the balcony cost lots more.
All that being said, if the theater in this case didn't have differently priced tickets and the theater was mostly empty so that it wouldn't matter where someone sat, then the theater staff were really being very anal jerks about it and on a power trip.
Excellent comment... This is called nuanced thinking.
There would only be two problems if this chose this seat... If he was so tall he was impeding someone's view who purposefully booked a seat with no one in front. Although that doesn't hold water, because the guy or anyone else could just go and book that seat he was now sitting in. Or if he was perving on someone. Although that's not a crime either. Point is, the theatre was empty, and discretion should have been used to allow people to sit where they want, with the caveat that if someone bought that actual seat at some point, then and only then would he have to move.
Ultimately, the theatre usher was been too strict with the 'rule' instead of using his discretion on this case by case basis to allow it, since it was a no harm no foul situation, and no one else knew or cared the guy what in an unassigned seat. It was an usher power trip. And he lost a customer, and probably lots of other people who will never go to assigned seating theatres as a result of seeing this.
The usher made it into a thing, not the customer. Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right', and customer oriented service. Nowadays it's 'anytime as a lowly peon I have power over someone for anything, I'm going to flex it'. Fuck the cuck usher
Follow the illogical Communist rules. Sir, we assigned you that nice seat in the very right back corner where you have to look wonky eyed and tilt-headed the whole time. We appreciate your $25 ticket and $30 for treats, but YOU WILL SIT WHERE WE TELL YOU TO SIT. AND YOU WILL SAY AND NOT SAY WHAT WE TELL YOU TOO AS WELL. THE GOVERNMENT DOES IT. SO CAN WE.
But if you own a Christian bakery, you MUST bake cakes for gay weddings. Because WE TELL YOU TO.
It's all about ENTRAINMENT to OBEYING illogical DICTATES on every level.
what stupid BS. I would have told the guy if the person with that seat number shows up you are going to have to move but until then .....no problem
Right, that's what normal people do OR you could just go back to first come first serve.
Well first of all the management would not come in and ask him to move unless someone complained that he was sitting in the seat that they had the tickets for.
Just grab the fat fucker by his hippy-dippy hair and drag him out like a rabid dog. Where the head goes, the fat ass body will follow. What a DICK!!! And he can vote in this great country of ours. THAT is what's sad. Guarantee he votes democrat.
You're so far backwards, you're probably a tranny Albert you fag. Demonrats are all about following illogical rules, it's Libertarians that understand freedom.
Now go bake your gay wedding cake. DWEEB
Empty theater and management is enforcing theater seating. What a bunch of Ass holes.
everybody gets treated the same way dipshit. if they make the expectation for him then they would for everybody and whats the point of assigned seating. how stupid can you be trying to justify this
If assigned seating is the system, use it or go somewhere else.
Concert halls, Broadway theaters, restaurants taking reservations, airplanes, sleeper trains, sports arenas, car rental agencies, private marinas, .....they all use assigned seating or equivalents.
Heck, when I rent space at gun shows the tables are assigned ahead of time. I did a trade show at the Javits in NYC and my location was assigned weeks in advance.
Its not a new concept.
Any sympathy I had for his arguing points were shattered the moment I saw he was the 'It Places the Lotion in the Basket' guy. EDIT: I paused it before he turned around. Now he's Junior the Gorg Giant from Fraggle Rock https://muppet.fandom.com/w...
I was waiting for him to come out with the tran sgen der card.
Buy a small pool .........
You can use that pool water !!
From personal experience in a theater that has preassigned seating, I can say with 100% confidence that management does not come in to the theater EVER to assure that you are sitting in the proper seat unless someone comes out to complain.
If the place going to be full, then I agree with you.
Dude just my opinion, not trying to start a range war.
The rules are to be complied with.
If you allow this little disobedience, society will collapse eventually.
First you allow sitting in wrong seat in theater and next thing you know is negroes driving in buses sitting in front with white folks or walking into whites only stores.
Exactly right.
Although it might not matter where he sits in this case, what is the reason for him to sit one seat to the right?
And why on Earth would he refuse to sit in his seat?
Only to cause a confrontation, what an asshole.
Actually there are several places that permit you to do just that with unimproved vacant land. You can actually become the owner of the land, Florida used to be one.
I was wondering how many people he had chained in his basement. But I suppose he would have been so outrageous.