JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Half an hour after his father opened fire on another car on the I-10 flyover to I-95 north, Leonard Bryant Jr. told his girlfriend that his ears were still ringing from the gunshots.
That’s according to messages revealed in the 22-year-old’s arrest report, obtained Tuesday by News4JAX.
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Bryant Jr. and his father, Leonard Bryant Sr., 43, are charged in connection with the deadly road-rage shooting on Sept. 18, 2025, that killed 26-year-old Toby Robinson and injured two other men and a woman.
The woman’s 3-year-old daughter, who was also in the car, was not hurt.
Bryant Sr., who police have identified as the shooter, is charged with murder in Robinson’s death, four counts of attempted murder for the others who were in the car, and possession of a firearm by a felon, court records show.
News4JAX is digging deeper into the arrests of the father and son. One of the victims told News4JAX they don’t want to speak publicly because despite the arrests, they are still concerned for their safety.
What happened
According to Bryant Jr.’s arrest report, police interviewed the three shooting survivors, a 28-year-old woman, a 29-year-old man and an 18-year-old man, and all three gave similar accounts of their encounter with a black Dodge Charger that police later determined was registered to Bryant Sr.
The group said they were in a white Chevy Impala, headed home on I-10 eastbound around 7:45 p.m., when they got into an argument while in traffic with the driver of the Charger. They described it as “scat” style with dark tint, black rims, a wide body and a hood scoop.
The three survivors all said that after the argument, the Charger drove up aggressively behind them and then kept pace with them, driving up on either side of their car, despite their attempts to slow down and let the Charger pass.
The woman, who was driving the Impala, said that as the two cars entered the flyover curve from I-10 onto I-95 north, she saw gunfire coming from the Charger and felt a round hit her in the leg.
She stopped on the side of the highway and called 911.
According to the report, Bryant Jr. told police that his father had grabbed a Century Arms Micro Draco in the car that belonged to Bryant Jr. and shot multiple times at the white car. (Similar weapon pictured below)
Police said they found 14 bullet holes in the side of the Impala, along with 12 .762mm shell casings on the highway.
Bryant Jr. told investigators he’d bought the semi-automatic gun from a pawn shop in late April. When they asked if he still had it, he said he’d sold it to a friend from work.
Tracking down the shooter
In a news release about the arrests of the father and son, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said detectives spent nine months investigating the shooting and “used multiple investigative tools” to identify the suspect.
Bryant Jr.’s arrest report sheds more light on exactly how investigators tracked down Bryant Jr. and his father.
According to the report, the woman who survived the shooting gave police her phone, and they were able to use its data to show her car was exactly where she said it was at the time of the shooting.
Then, investigators used a search warrant to get cell tower data from the driving route, and said they found that Bryant Jr.’s phone was “in close proximity” to the woman’s phone throughout the time of the encounter, before speeding away northbound when the woman’s phone stopped, and she called 911.
Investigators were able to use information from another carrier to show that another phone traveling next to the Impala during the incident was associated with a 2020 black Charger, which was registered to Leonard Bryant Sr.
With data now pointing them to the Bryants, investigators started digging into the son’s social media accounts and cellphone data.
Bryant Jr.’s Instagram account was involved in a group chat that investigators flagged because of multiple comments that appeared to be related to the shooting, including:
- “Aye I gotta talk to u boys I probably gotta lay low”
- “Pops got dumb wit da drac”
- “Ran it up to 156”
- “We was in the car”
A download of Bryant Jr.’s iCloud account also revealed a series of texts with his 20-year-old girlfriend, who expressed concern after investigators say he told her about the incident.
Police said that just 30 minutes after the shooting, Bryant Jr. messaged his girlfriend, listed in the report as A.A., to say he needed to talk to her in person. The conversation continued:
- Bryant Jr: Ears ringing
- A.A.: Questioned “With you in the car?”
- A.A.: Arguing with who
- A.A.: Idk if I want you over there
- A.A.: If he got anger issues like that
- A.A.: You have to tell your mother now
- A.A.: It doesn’t matter how mad you can be at the moment. If you have your son in the car and feel the need to shoot at another car. Also, with you son gun you need to sit your a** down. That could’ve been really bad for y’all and still can be. What if they had cameras in the area.
Father, son arrested
Bryant Jr. was arrested Dec. 17, 2025, and was charged with accessory after the fact to a felony and tampering with evidence. On June 4, 2026, he entered a guilty plea to the accessory charge. He has not yet been sentenced.
Bryant Sr. was taken into custody on June 19 after a SWAT team located him. He is scheduled for arraignment on his six charges on July 13.
Bryant Jr. will be back in court on Aug. 20 for a status hearing.
“We’ll continue to work to bring justice to everyone impacted in this reckless act,” JSO said in its release announcing the arrests.