A father and son are facing heavy criminal charges after a nine-month police investigation tied them to a highway shooting that left a young man dead and three others wounded last year.
The incident unfolded on Thursday, September 18, 2025, during the afternoon rush. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office District 1 Patrol officers rushed to a call of shots fired on I-10 East near the I-95 North interchange. When they arrived on the scene, officers discovered an SUV carrying four people suffering from gunshot wounds.
Three of the victims survived their injuries after being treated. The fourth victim, 26-year-old Toby Robinson, died from his wounds. A three-year-old child was also sitting inside the SUV when the gunfire erupted, but the toddler was not physically harmed.
The agency’s Homicide Unit took over the crime scene but faced immediate hurdles. In the days following the shooting, detectives had virtually no leads. The only information available to investigators at the time was that the shooting likely stemmed from an aggressive road rage encounter and that the shooter drove off in a black vehicle.
Detectives spent the next nine months tracking down leads and utilizing investigative tools to piece together what happened on the interstate. Through that work, they eventually identified 43-year-old Leonard Bryant Senior as the suspected gunman.
As the investigation continued, detectives determined that the gunman’s son, 22-year-old Leonard Bryant Junior, helped his father after the crime. Police laid charges against the younger Bryant for tampering with evidence and acting as an accessory to the murder. Officers arrested Bryant Junior first, taking him into custody on December 17, 2025.
The search for the suspected gunman ended on Friday, June 19, 2026. A Jacksonville SWAT team located Bryant Senior and took him into custody without further incident.
He is currently booked for the murder of Robinson, along with four counts of attempted murder—one count for every other person inside the SUV during the attack, including the unhurt child.
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