The man suspected of robbing perhaps six banks, including one Wednesday morning in Forsyth and another Friday in Tifton, has been arrested and is being held at the Lamar County jail.

According to a jail spokesman at the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, Leonard William Willis, 44, of Jacksonville, Fla., was apprehended and is being held at the jail there.

Detective Lee Dunston of the Tifton Police Department said Wednesday morning that he had been in contact with law enforcement officials in Forsyth and Volusia County, Fla., where Willis was also suspected of robbing several businesses.

“I confirmed with the name of the suspect in Forsyth and it matches, along with the description of Willis,” Dunston said. “I don’t know if any evidence has been recovered.”

At 11:14 a.m. Wednesday, officials in Forsyth were still working the scene of a BB&T Bank robbery earlier in the day.

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, Capt. Brad White of the Lamar County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Willis was being held in the jail there. White said that at approximately 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, his department received word from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office that a bank robbery had occurred in that county. White said he received the description of the vehicle involved in the robbery and that the offender was a white male.

At 9:50 a.m., White said he received word from the Georgia State Patrol of a “Be On the Look Out” posted by Florida authorities concerning Willis and outstanding warrants.

“We were giving the information to the City of Barnesville when we had a hold-up alarm at United Bank of Barnesville,” White said. “I had just printed out the information from the GSP and had notified the banks and we were about to go show the banks pictures when we heard the hold-up alarm.”

White said Lamar County deputies then spread out and began looking for the bank robbery suspect’s vehicle. Lt. Leslie Baines spotted it, White said, got behind it and kept it in sight until a Butts County deputy joined her. At she initiated her blue lights for the suspect to pull over.

“He fled northbound on I-75,” White said. “Once they got to Locust Grove, the police department there laid out spike strips and disabled his right front tire.”

Willis was taken into custody without incident six miles later, some 15-20 miles after Baines first spotted the vehicle.

Willis had outstanding warrants on him for the Feb. 6 robberies of Halifax Plantations in Ormond Beach, Fla.; the Bank of America at Ormond Beach, Fla. on Feb. 17; the Bank of America in Lake City, Fla. on Feb. 23; and the Colony Bank in Tifton on Friday. Two of the Ormond Beach, Fla., robberies were committed within 40 minutes of each other. Unconfirmed reports are that Willis is also a suspect in a recent armed robbery of a Dublin bank. Confusion surrounding one Dublin bank robbery is circulating and Dunston said a different man had been arrested and charged with robbing a Dublin bank.

Willis’ recent arrest is not his first. According to the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement Web site, a Leonard W. Willis with the same date of birth has served approximately 10 years behind bars with his latest release date being in October of 2007. According to the Web site, Barnes served time in prison on 1995 convictions on burglary and trafficking in stolen property charges in Duvall County; on 1998 convictions on two charges of trafficking in stolen property in Duvall County.