WOODBINE, Ga. (AP) — The family of a Black man fatally shot by a Georgia sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop viewed video of the roadside confrontation Wednesday, with siblings saying they believe their brother resisted arrest because of the 16 years he had previously spent being wrongfully imprisoned.
Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor’s office posted dash and body camera video online Wednesday of the stop that left 53-year-old Leonard Cure dead.
Cure’s mother and siblings arrived at a Georgia Bureau of Investigation office with their attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, to view the video before its public release. They said it showed an aggressive deputy who could have done more to de-escalate the conflict with Cure.
“He really should be alive,” said Michael Cure, one of the slain man's older brothers. "The officer hit him with his baton and he tazed him, twice as a matter of fact. But he did not have to shoot him.”
Just three years ago Cure was released from a Florida prison. Cure was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 2004 and was sentenced to life in prison, but authorities reviewing his case in 2020 concluded he didn't commit the crime.
Cure's mother and brothers said he lived in constant fear of being arrested and incarcerated again. Michael Cure said he's confident that's why his brother resisted being arrested before he was shot Monday.
“My brother did turn and get a bit physical, but for the most part he was completely compliant,” Michael Cure said. “I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother. I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement.”
Before watching the video, Cure's family held a news conference outside the Camden County courthouse. Cure's mother, Mary Cure, grasped a framed portrait of her slain son.
“I don’t feel, no matter what happened, that he should have been killed," Mary Cure said.
When three officers came to her house Monday, she said, “My heart just dropped. I knew it."
She knew her son was dead before the officers told her: “How do I know that? Because I lived with that fear and so did he.”
When Cure was wrongfully imprisoned, the Innocence Project of Florida persuaded a case review unit of the Broward County prosecutor's office to take a look at his case. That unit examined an ATM receipt and other evidence that Cure was miles away from the robbery. A judge vacated his conviction in 2020.
A sheriff's deputy pulled Cure over Monday along Interstate 95, a few miles north of the Georgia-Florida line. Authorities say Cure had been speeding, driving faster than 90 mph (145 kph), and faced a reckless driving arrest.
Citing preliminary information, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a news release Monday that Cure, who was Black, complied with the deputy until he was told he was under arrest.
After the deputy used a stun gun on Cure when he didn't obey the deputy's commands, Cure assaulted the deputy, the bureau said. The deputy then used the stun gun a second time, along with a baton, before pulling out his firearm and shooting Cure.
“He is someone that was failed by the system once and he has again been failed by the system. He’s been twice taken away from his family,” Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence of Project of Florida, said Wednesday.
Miller said that for so many of his clients, including Cure, their biggest fear is that an officer will knock on their door or stop them while driving "without cause, for something they didn’t do, send them back right where they worked so hard to get out of. I can only imagine that must have been what he was thinking during this traffic stop.”
“It’s hard for us to understand how he could not be subdued without taking lethal force,” Miller said. “We look forward to seeing the video and making our own judgments then.”
Michael Cure told reporters his brother was an “exceptional individual.”
“In fact, after being wrongfully convicted for 16 years, you know what he did? He forgave the idiots that locked him up,” he said.
Michael Cure said he's not as forgiving as his brother and lashed out at law enforcement, saying his family had been forced to join the “unfortunate club” of families whose loved ones have been killed by police.
“Here we are now, one of those families," he said.
