An arraignment date has been set for a suspect in a bank robbery last week in Leesburg.
Brandon J. Hooks, 38, of Lady Lake will be arraigned on a charge of robbery on April 3 in Lake County Court.
A teller was on duty at about 9:30 a.m. March 6 at the Wells Fargo bank at 2271 Citrus Blvd. when she was approached by Hooks, according to the Leesburg Police Department. He handed the teller a note. The teller complied with the instructions on the note and Hooks fled.
Multiple officers responded to the bank area and found Hooks. A bank employee identified Hooks as the robber.
When Hooks was searched at the Leesburg Police Department he was found to have a packet of $100 bills bound by a purple-and-white bank band. A total of $3,492 in cash was found on Hooks. He told the officers that he had been kicked out of his aunt’s house because he got into an argument over her not giving him some of his money which he said she controlled. He said he has not been able to by his medications and has been off his meds for the past two months.
Hooks had been released in March 2022 after serving five years in the Sumter County Jail for robbing a Wells Fargo branch bank in Lady Lake in 2017. He used the same technique in that case as was used in Monday’s heist.
