KINGSLAND, Ga. – A Black man who spent more than 16 years imprisoned in Florida on a wrongful conviction was fatally shot Monday by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop, authorities said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is reviewing the shooting, identified the man as Leonard Allen Cure, 53.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office released graphic videos of the encounter on its YouTube page. (Viewer discretion is strongly advised)
“The video will show the traffic offenses of speeding over 100 mph and Reckless Driving which occurred prior to the body camera video of the Deputy’s encounter with Leonard Cure. Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor, along with District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, and GBI Agents investigating the case decided this morning to make the videos available for public review in an effort to be completely transparent as to what happened, and how the incident escalated to the point of extreme Use of Force,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook.
Dash camera video showed Cure speeding by in a silver Ram truck going what the Camden County Sheriff’s Office Staff Sergeant who pulled him over said was over 100 miles per hour. Less than a minute later, Cure pulled over on the side of the road.
The sergeant then exited his cruiser and yelled at Cure to “Step out! Get out!” and to put his hands on the back of his truck.
Cure then got out of the truck and said, “I ain’t doing s***,” and pulled his hand away when the deputy went to grab it.
“Who are you?” Cure asked as the deputy pulled out his Taser.
“Step back here now or you are getting tased,” the deputy responded after a brief exchange.
Cure then put his arms up and walked to the back of his truck and put his hands on the tailgate while the sergeant called for backup citing noncompliance.
The sergeant told Cure to put his hand behind his back and tried to grab Cure’s arm but Cure pulled away again and asked if he had a warrant out for his arrest.
“Either put your hand behind your back or you are getting tased I’m telling you that right now,” the sergeant said.
“Why am I getting tased?” Cure said.
“Because you are under arrest for speeding and reckless driving,” the sergeant responded.
“I’m not driving, nobody was hurt, how was I speeding?” Cure said.
“You passed me doing 100 miles per hour,” the sergeant responded.
“OK, so that’s a speeding ticket, right?” Cure said.
“Sir, tickets in the state of Georgia are criminal offenses,” the sergeant said.
The sergeant then told Cure to put his hands behind his back again and told Cure he was going to jail. Cure then raised his arm and pointed to the sky before the sergeant fired the Taser into his back.
Cure then froze for a moment before he turned around and started to swing his arms and move toward the sergeant.
Cure then started to wrestle with the sergeant, knocked his glasses off and pinned him to the truck before the sergeant pulled out his baton and began hitting Cure in his leg. Cure then grabbed the sergeant’s face and bent him backward.
“Yeah, b****,” Cure said as he pushed his hand up hard underneath the sergeant’s chin.
As the sergeant was struggling to gain control, he pulled out his gun and appeared to fire one shot into Cure’s stomach. The sound of the gunshot appears to be redacted from both the dash camera and body camera videos released by the Sheriff’s Office.
Cure then hit the ground and the sergeant broke away and ordered Cure to stay down while he reported “shots fired.”
Cure then said, “Too late” as he struggled to try and stand. The sergeant continued to tell him to stay down before backup arrived and Cure was handcuffed.
“Hey, you look at me. You ain’t going no damn where,” the sergeant said as he attempted to render aid.
“Did he have a gun or was he fighting you?” a responding deputy later asked.
“Fighting me,” the sergeant said.
Cure’s family and attorneys watched the body camera video on Wednesday afternoon and said they feel it was escalation met with escalation. They felt there was no attempt to de-escalate the situation by the sergeant.
“In all sincerity, I wish he had not been speeding if he were speeding, because again there was no radar, the officer was driving, and my brother passed him and he immediately got behind him but they were unable to tell us how he gaged the speed. That’s still a bit ambiguous at this point,” brother Michael Cure said.
But they still believe Leonard Cure should be alive.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Cure family, held a news conference Wednesday afternoon ahead of the release of the video.
“We absolutely do not believe if he was a White citizen he would have been killed for a traffic stop. So we are here demanding justice and we know to get to that justice is going to be built on truth and transparency,” Crump said.
Cure’s mother Mary stood beside Crump during the news conference and Crump said she was truly heartbroken.
His mother said even before officials said anything to her Monday, she knew her son was killed by law enforcement because she said she lived with that fear and so did he.
“I was uneasy every time he left because I was like would he get a traffic stop, is he going to be a victim of that, because from the time that he was released, he was never set free. I lived in constant fear every time the phone ring, and he wasn’t home, even if he was at work, is this going to be the day that they’re going to lock him up, beat him up, or kill him, I live with that. That is torture,” Mary Cure said.
Michael Cure said he felt the deputy got out of the car aggressively and that his brother’s emotions and the deputy’s emotions led to the unfortunate situation.
Cure had been represented in his exoneration case by the Innocence Project of Florida. The group’s executive director, Seth Miller, said he was devastated by news of the death, which he heard from Cure’s family.
“I can only imagine what it’s like to know your son is innocent and watch him be sentenced to life in prison, to be exonerated and ... then be told that once he’s been freed, he’s been shot dead,” Miller said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said a Camden County deputy pulled over Cure as he drove along Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida line.
According to Miller, Cure was on his way home from visiting his mother in South Florida when he was pulled over.
He got out of the car at the deputy’s request and cooperated at first but became violent after he was told he was being arrested, a GBI news release said.
“He just bought a house. He was getting on his feet. He had a great trajectory in life,” Miller said.
The agency said preliminary information shows the deputy shocked Cure with a stun gun when he failed to obey commands, and Cure began assaulting the deputy. The GBI said the deputy again tried using the stun gun and a baton to subdue him, then drew his gun and shot Cure when he continued to resist.
It is customary for Georgia law enforcement agencies to ask the GBI to investigate shootings involving officers. The agency said it will submit its findings to the district attorney for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit, which includes Camden County.
Timothy Bessent Sr., president of the Camden County NAACP, said he’s frustrated with the number of situations involving county deputies. He said the history of Camden County deputies charged with assault, and the litigation on deputy’s use of force makes every case concerning.
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“I want to know what led to him not wanting to comply anymore,” Bessent said. “I can speak for lots, if not millions of Black men in America. Anytime that we’re driving, we see those lights on behind us, it brings about a certain anxiety. Here’s a man that was wrongfully convicted. I can only imagine what could have been going through his mind at that time.”
Miller couldn’t comment specifically on Cure but said he has represented dozens of people convicted of crimes who were later exonerated.
“Even when they’re free, they always struggled with the concern, the fear that they’ll be convicted and incarcerated again for something they didn’t do,” he said.
Crump reacted to Cure’s actions after the deputy told him he was going to jail.
“It’s troubling because as Michael and I talk about the psychological effects, his wrongful incarceration, the PTSD of being triggered, saying that you’re going back to jail, and he believes his brother was triggered at that point,” Crump said.
Cure was convicted of the 2003 armed robbery of a drug store in Florida’s Dania Beach. His conviction came from a second jury after the first one deadlocked. Cure was sentenced to life in prison because he had previous convictions for robbery and other crimes.
In 2020, the Broward State Attorney’s Office new Conviction Review Unit asked a judge to release Cure from prison. Broward’s conviction review team said it found “troubling” revelations that Cure had solid alibis that were previously disregarded and no physical evidence or solid witnesses to put him at the scene.
An independent review panel of five local lawyers concurred with the findings.
Cure was released that April after his sentence was modified. In December 2020, a judge vacated his conviction and sentence.
“I’m looking forward to putting this situation behind me and moving on with my life,” Cure told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time.
Miller said once Cure was exonerated he spent time educating others.
“He was also someone who was telling his story to student groups, and to civic groups, and raising awareness about wrongful convictions and really a productive value added to society that we’ve lost now,” Miller said.
In June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a claims bill granting Cure $817,000 in compensation for his conviction and imprisonment, along with educational benefits.
Miller said Cure, who lived in a suburb of Atlanta, received the money in August.
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor described Cure as smart, funny and kind.
“After he was freed and exonerated by our office, he visited prosecutors at our office and participated in training to help our staff do their jobs in the fairest and most thorough way possible," Pryor said in a statement to the Sun Sentinel.
Cure would frequently call to check in on Assistant State Attorney Arielle Demby Berger, the head of the Conviction Review Unit, and offer encouragement to continue to do “the important work of justice,” Pryor said.