(Reuters) – A Black man who served 16 years in prison for an armed robbery conviction that was later vacated was fatally shot by a Georgia sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop as he was driving to visit his mother in Florida.
The deputy pulled over Leonard Allan Cure, 53, on Monday morning along Interstate 95 in Camden County near the Florida border. An altercation ensued, and the deputy killed Cure, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The deadly encounter took place about 20 years to the day after Cure was arrested for an armed robbery and assault with a firearm at a Walgreen’s store in Dania Beach, Florida. A year later, a jury found Cure guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
In December 2019, Cure asked a newly created review board to re-investigate his case, based on evidence and questions about how he was identified as a suspect. During the subsequent investigation and review, a judge vacated Cure’s convictions and the charges were dropped.
The Innocence Project of Florida represented Cure during his appeal. It said in a statement on Monday that Cure was traveling to see his mother in south Florida when the incident occurred.
“We are devastated by the news that our client, Leonard Cure, was tragically shot to death this morning,” it said, noting that he had a job, was in the process of buying a home and aspired to attend college for music production.
It was not clear why the officer pulled Cure over or why he was under arrest. The deputy was not identified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The agency said that during the stop, the deputy told Cure that he was under arrest. Cure did not comply with the deputy’s requests and assaulted him, it said. Before pulling out his gun and shooting, the deputy used a Taser and a baton to subdue Cure, the agency said. Paramedics treated Cure but he later died.
Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor said in a Facebook post that he had asked the state bureau to investigate the incident.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
