CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. — Mary Cure was worried for her son's safety after he was exonerated and released from Florida state prison in 2020. Her son, Leonard Cure, 53, served more than 16 years behind bars for a wrongful armed robbery conviction, which he was proven innocent of.
Ever since his release, Mary Cure said she lived in constant fear for his life, especially if he was ever around law enforcement.
"I was uneasy, every time he left because I was like: 'Will he get a traffic stop, is he gonna be a victim of that?' Because from the time that he was released, he was never set free," Mary Cure said.
Monday, her worse nightmare came true, when she learned her son was shot and killed by a deputy during a traffic stop.
During a press conference Wednesday, Mary Cure, was alongside family and Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, where she spoke about the moment officers came to her door and told her her son was dead.
"I said, 'police has killed him,' before they could tell me. How do I know that? Because I live with that fear and so did he. We all live with that," said Mary Cure. "If I saw a cop in a uniform pass my house, I was a nervous wreck. That was a nightmare," said Mary Cure.
Leonard Cure was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop on I-95 Monday, in which he was pulled over for speeding.
He was driving back to his home in Georgia after visiting his mother in Florida at the time he was pulled over.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting and the deputy involved, identified as Buck Aldridge, has been placed on administrative leave.
The GBI contends that Leonard Cure resisted deputies when he was told he was being arrested. He was tased twice, before being fatally shot.
Now, his family is calling for justice, arguing this is the second time their loved one was taken from them.
"I have my child twice and you f*cking take him? You take him and leave him lying on the ground like he's nothing?" said Mary Cure.
In 2003, Leonard was convicted of an armed robbery that occurred at a Walgreens in Broward County.
An ATM receipt was used as evidence to prove he was miles away from the crime scene at the time of the robbery.
"He is an exoneree, he is someone that was failed by this system once, and he again failed by the system. He's been twice taken away from his family," said Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Florida Seth Miller.
The State of Florida recognized Leonard Cure as innocent, and he received compensation for the time he was wrongfully incarcerated in August.
Attorney Ben Crump said Leonard Cure had bought a home in Atlanta with the compensation funds and was planning to go to college.
"It is God awful that he would escape that injustice to have his life claimed by more bias," Crump added. "We absolutely do not believe if he was a white citizen, he would have been killed for a traffic stop."
"We are here demanding justice, and we know to get to that justice, it's going to be built on truth and transparency," Crump said.
The Camden County Sheriff's Office released dashcam video of the incident Wednesday evening, following the news conference.