WOODBINE, Ga. — A Georgia deputy fatally shot a Black man at point-blank range during a traffic stop after the man, who had been wrongfully imprisoned years ago, grabbed the officer by the neck and was forcing his head backward, according to video released by a sheriff Wednesday.
The family of Leonard Cure, 53, viewed the dash and body camera video before Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor’s office posted it online. Relatives said they suspect Cure resisted being arrested because of psychological trauma from spending 16 years imprisoned in Florida for an armed robbery he didn’t commit.
“I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother,” Michael Cure said of his slain brother. “I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement.”
The sheriff released the video two days after one of his deputies, who is white, pulled over Cure’s pickup truck on suspicion of reckless driving and, after a struggle, fatally shot him on Interstate 95 a few miles north of the Georgia-Florida line. Cure had been visiting his mother in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and was returning to a home he bought recently in metro Atlanta.
The video shows the deputy shouting several times for Cure to get out of his vehicle. Cure exits from the driver’s-side door, but at first refuses a command to put his hands on the back of the truck.
“I ain’t doing s—,” he tells the deputy.
Cure complies after the deputy threatens to use a stun gun on him. With his hands on the truck, he questions why he was pulled over.
“You passed me doing 100 miles per hour (160 kph),” the deputy replies.
When Cure ignores commands to put his hands behind his back, the deputy fires his stun gun — shocking Cure with electrified prongs connected to the weapon by wires. The video shows Cure…
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