Body and dash camera footage released by the Georgia Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday shows what led up to the moment a deputy shot and killed a Black man who had served more than 16 years in prison for a wrongful conviction.
The videos, released by the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, captured the deadly encounter between an unnamed deputy and 53-year-old Leonard Cure during a traffic stop Monday.
The officer had stopped Cure, who was released from prison about three and a half years ago, for speeding on Interstate 95, claiming he passed him “at 100 miles per hour,” according to the clips.
The video shows Cure parking his truck on the side of the road, followed by the officer yelling at him, demanding that he get out of the vehicle.
“Get out! Put your hands here,” he orders Cure, pointing to the back of the truck.
“I didn’t do s**t,” Cure responds as he throws his arm back when the officer tries to grab him.
The officer pulls out his Taser and points it at him while directing Cure to the back of the vehicle.
Leonard Cure, 53, was shot and killed by a Georgia police officer during a traffic stop on Monday.
Cure asks who the deputy is and what police agency he works for.
He then raises his hands in the air as he walks toward the back of the truck and follows the officer’s orders to place his hands on the back and turn around.
“Put your hands behind your back,” the agent orders Cure after calling for backup.
Confused, Cure asks if there is a warrant for his arrest and leaves his hands on the truck.
“Or you put your hands behind your back because they’re shooting at you, I’m telling you right now,” the officer tells Cure.
“Why? Why are they shooting me?” Cure asks.
“Because he’s under arrest for speeding and reckless driving,” the agent said.
“I’m not driving. Nobody was hurt. How was it accelerating?
“You passed me going 100 miles per hour,” the officer said.
“Okay, so that’s a speeding ticket, right?” Cure asks.
“Sir, tickets in the state of Georgia are criminal offenses,” the officer responds.
Cure, incredulous, says he won’t go to jail and refuses to obey.
“Hands behind your back. Yes, you’re going to jail,” the officer says and then Tasers Cure in the back after Cure points it at the sky.
Cure’s family said a traffic stop should never have resulted in his death.
The officer again yells at Cure to put his hands behind his back, but instead Cure waves his arms toward the Taser strings and approaches the officer.
The pair then fight chest to chest, as the dash cam video shows. Cure grabs the officer’s face and pushes his head back, cursing at him, as the officer pulls the baton away from him and hits him, according to the footage.
The officer then shoots Cure with his gun at point-blank range and the man lets go of Cure’s face as he falls to the ground, the clip shows.
“Stay down,” he yells at Cure while flailing, according to the video.
The officer, out of breath, radios and reports that shots were fired and the suspect was on the ground while calling for help.
He and other officers who arrive at the scene provide aid until paramedics arrive and transfer Cure to an ambulance, according to the video, which then shows the officer becoming emotional and crying.
Cure later died.
Cure was exonerated in 2020 of an armed robbery conviction more than 16 years earlier. The Florida Channel
His family, who were shown the videos before they were made public, said a traffic stop should never have ended with Cure’s death.
His brother Wallace Cure told reporters that “there was absolutely no reason why my brother would be killed over a traffic stop.” While he acknowledged the physical fight captured on the videos, he said he had seen other confrontations between police and suspects where “the person didn’t end up dead.”
The family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, said the officer was aggressive from the beginning and made no attempt to calm the situation.
Crump and another brother, Michael Cure, believe the officer provoked Cure when he told him he was going to jail.
“I think there were possibly some issues, some mental issues with my brother,” Michael Cure said. “I know him pretty well. The officer just provoked him, he certainly provoked him. “It was emotion met with emotion.”
Crump said Cure’s PTSD was triggered.
“When they have convicted you unjustly and then they talk about putting you back in the cage?” she said at a news conference with the brothers. “It’s psychological at that point.”
Body camera and dash camera footage show Cure fighting with the officer before he is shot. Via REUTERS
Cure was exonerated and released in 2020 thanks to the work of the Florida Innocence Project.
He was serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2003 of an armed robbery at a Walgreens in Broward County, Florida.
But in 2019, a Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit was formed and took over his case. The unit discovered that Cure had a solid alibi (in the form of a time-stamped ATM receipt from miles away) at the time of the robbery, which was previously ignored, and there was no physical evidence linking him to the scene.
An independent review panel of lawyers and later a judge agreed that Cure was innocent and the charges were dropped.
“I’m looking forward to putting this situation behind me and moving forward with my life,” Cure told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time.
The freed man had recently purchased a home in Palmetto, Georgia, with part of the $817,000 he received from the state of Florida this summer for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
Florida Innocence Project Executive Director Seth Miller mourned the death of Cure, also known as Lenny.
“I can only imagine what it’s like to know your son is innocent and to watch him be sentenced to life in prison, be exonerated and … then be told that once he’s released, he’ll be shot to death,” Miller said.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn