Oct 19, 2023
UPDATE: Bodycam Shows Leonard Cure's Fatal Police Encounter
UPDATE: Bodycam Shows Leonard Cure's Fatal Police Encounter
- 10 minutes
Leonard Cure's body cam footage release,
here it is.
>> Speaker 2: Sir, tickets in the state
of Georgia are criminal offenses.
>> Speaker 3: I don't
have a ticket in Georgia.
>> Speaker 2: You do now.
>> Speaker 3: Why?
>> Speaker 2: You passed
me doing 100 miles an hour.
>> And what, am I going to jail?
[00:00:15]
>> Hands behind your back,
yes, you are going to jail.
Hands behind your back.
Put your hands behind your back.
[00:00:46]
>> Speaker 2: Bits, yeah, bits.
>> Speaker 4: Stay down,
stay down, stay down.
[00:01:01]
Camden, shots fired.
Shots fired, Camden.
Stay down, do not get up, stay down.
Stay down, stay down.
[00:01:20]
>> Speaker 1: I want to now show you
the interaction before that encounter.
>> Speaker 4: Step out, step out.
Get out, get out.
[00:01:36]
Put your hands back here.
>> Speaker 4: I ain't doing it.
>> Put your damn hands back here.
>> Speaker 2: Who are you?
Staff Sergeant at the Sheriff's office.
>> Speaker 2: My name is.
>> I don't care,
step to the rear of this vehicle.
>> In the name of who?
>> In the name of the law
of the state of Georgia,
[00:01:52]
step back here now or
you're getting tased.
>> Speaker 3: Watch me now.
>> Speaker 2: Put your hands
on the back of that truck.
>> Speaker 3: Do you see that?
>> Speaker 2: Put your hands
on the back of that truck.
>> Speaker 3: The back of the truck.
[00:02:08]
>> Speaker 2: Both hands, turn around.
34 Camden, send me another unit,
one non-compliant.
[INAUDIBLE]
>> Your name is Officer who?
[00:02:24]
>> Speaker 2: Staff Sergeant Aldridge
with the Camden County Sheriff's Office.
>> Speaker 2: The who county?
>> Speaker 2: Camden county,
put your hand behind your back.
>> Speaker 3: Do I have a warrant?
Wait, wait, no, no, no, excuse me.
>> Speaker 2: Either, put your hands
behind your back or you're getting tased.
I'm telling you that right now.
>> Speaker 3: Why am I getting tased?
[00:02:39]
>> Speaker 2: Because you are under
arrest for speeding and reckless driving.
>> Speaker 1: I'm not driving,
nobody was hurt.
How was I speeding?
>> Speaker 2: You passed
me doing 100 miles an hour.
>> Speaker 3: Okay, so
that's a speeding ticket, right?
>> Speaker 2: Sir, tickets in the state
of Georgia are criminal offenses.
>> Speaker 3: I don't
have a ticket in Georgia.
>> Speaker 2: You do now.
>> Speaker 3: Why?
[00:02:55]
>> Speaker 2: You passed
me doing 100 miles an hour.
>> Speaker 2: And what,
am I going to jail?
>> Hands behind your back,
yes, you are going to jail.
>> Speaker 4: Hands behind your back.
>> Speaker 1: Put up
the picture full mass.
I will give you the background and
the foreground.
Dash cam and body cam footage of
the Camden County Georgia Sheriff's Deputy
[00:03:13]
who fatally shot 53 year old
Leonard Cure at point blank range during
a traffic stop was released by
the sheriff's office yesterday.
The footage shows Mr Cure,
who had been wrongfully imprisoned for
[00:03:30]
16 years of his life,
wrongfully imprisoned for
16 years of his life,
grabbed the officer by the neck,
forcing his head backward
when the two entered
into a scuffle right after
the deputy tased him.
[00:03:49]
The family of Mr. Cure, who reviewed
the footage before its release,
suspect that Mr. Cure resisted arrest
because of psychological trauma
from being wrongfully imprisoned for
16 years of his natural life.
[00:04:04]
He was imprisoned in Florida for
an armed robbery that he never committed.
Per the AP, Michael Cure said
of his slain brother, quote,
I believe there were possibly some
mental issues with my brother.
[00:04:22]
The office just triggered him,
the officer just triggered him,
undoubtedly triggered him.
It was excitement met with excitement.
I want you to understand the wrongful
conviction that took place with Mr Cure.
He was wrongfully convicted
of armed robbery in 2004.
[00:04:40]
It changed him, it's called
atmospheric psychological trauma.
He was wrongfully convicted in 2004,
he was sentenced to life in prison for
that wrongful conviction
in the state of Florida,
[00:04:57]
but authorities reviewed his case.
In 2020,
after the authorities reviewed his case,
they concluded he never
committed that crime.
He was an innocent man.
He was wrongfully convicted.
He was released three years ago.
[00:05:14]
Cure's mother and
brothers said he lived in constant fear of
being arrested and incarcerated,
wrongfully, again.
When Mr Cure was wrongfully imprisoned,
the Innocence Project of Florida persuaded
[00:05:30]
a case review unit of the Broward County
Prosecutor's office to look into the case.
That unit examined an ATM receipt and
other evidence that Cure was
miles away from the robbery.
There was no way possible for
him to commit it.
[00:05:46]
A judge looked at that same evidence,
agreed, and vacated the conviction.
Camden County Sheriff, Jim Proctor
released footage two days after
the incident occurred Monday morning.
The sheriff has placed a deputy,
whose name has not been released on
[00:06:03]
administrative leave during a review by
the GBI, which is customary for Georgia,
for law enforcement involved shootings.
What was the reason for the traffic stop?
The deputy, who you could tell
is a white male, pulled over Mr.
Cure because Cure's pickup truck on
suspicion of driving recklessly.
[00:06:21]
This was on Interstate 95, a few miles
north of the Georgia Florida line.
Mr. Cure had been visiting
his mother in Florida and
was returning to a home he bought
recently in metro Atlanta.
Camden is in Georgia, but
located right on the border of Florida.
[00:06:40]
So when you come north in Florida, you go
to Camden, you go up to middle Georgia,
then you hit Atlanta,
okay, so it's a long drive.
He was making that drive.
Let's put him up.
The GBI will send findings to
the Brunswick Judicial Circuit DA,
[00:06:57]
Keith Higgins, who will determine
whether to seek charges, okay.
Higgins reportedly met with Cure's
family after the video was released, but
the prosecutor's spokeswoman said he would
not make a final decision until the bureau
[00:07:13]
concludes its investigation.
After viewing the video, Cure's relatives
believed shooting him was unnecessary, and
civil rights attorney Ben Crop,
who's representing the family,
blamed the deputy for
acting aggressively from the start,
never attempting to de-escalate,
as his training requires.
[00:07:29]
Seth Miller is the director of the
Innocence Project of Florida, who knew Mr.
Cure, said Wednesday, quote, 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.
[00:07:46]
Miller said that for so
many of his clients, including Mr.
Cure, the biggest fear is that
an officer will knock on their door or
stop them while they're driving without
cause for something they did not do.
Send them back right where they worked so
hard to get out of.
[00:08:06]
I can only imagine that
must have been what he was
thinking during this traffic stop,
Miller said.
You know Miller was right,
you know he's right.
Regardless of what you think
about the deputy's action,
[00:08:23]
you know what this man
just said is correct.
You know what the family said is correct.
If somebody took away your
freedom illegally 16 years,
and the authorities say,
oops, my bad, you get out.
[00:08:43]
And then you are pulled over by
someone in that same uniform,
I'm providing context because Mr.
Cure deserves it.
He's dead, all right?
Mr. Cure is dead,
he's not coming back, but
[00:08:59]
his full story deserves
to be on the record.
Jordan, thoughts.
It's this idea in this country that
our judicial system is fair and
impartial and cautious and careful,
and that is what people are taught.
[00:09:15]
That's what we are supposed to assume.
But as this demonstrates, especially
if you are black in this country,
it is reckless, it is dangerous,
it is racist, it is sloppy.
And knowing that and seeing that, and
him having lived that experience,
[00:09:35]
being wrongfully accused and
imprisoned for 16 years of his life,
having a large portion of his life and
freedom stolen from him,
you are not surprised when
you see him react that way.
Because why should he believe that
a police officer who immediately
[00:09:54]
acts aggressive toward him for a speeding
ticket, a potential speeding ticket,
why would he believe that this would
be anything different than the racist,
sloppy and reckless judicial
system he has come to experience?
[00:10:13]
I get it, I feel terrible for his family.
But this is the quintessential American
judicial and police experience for
far too many people in this country.
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