BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The family of Leonard Cure, an exonerated man who was fatally shot by a Camden County deputy on the side of Interstate 95 following a routine traffic stop in October, announced a federal lawsuit against the deputy who killed him on Tuesday in Brunswick.
Cure, who spent 16 years wrongfully incarcerated in Florida for an armed robbery in 2003, was pulled over by Staff Sergeant Buck Aldridge for speeding and reckless driving on Oct. 16, 2023.
Less than a minute after pulling Cure over, Aldridge is heard on dashcam footage screaming for him to get out of his vehicle.
When Cure gets out, Aldridge orders him to put his hands on the back of the vehicle. He refused, and the deputy pulled out his stun gun. After Cure put his hands on the back of the vehicle, Aldridge told him to put his hands behind his back because he was under arrest.
"I'm not going to jail," said Cure, just before Aldridge deployed the stun gun on him while continuing to ask for his hands.
Cure lunged at the deputy making swatting motions seemingly to remove the wire from the stun gun, and a struggle ensued between them spilling onto the outside lane of I-95. Aldridge ultimately shot and killed Cure during the scuffle.
"The first aggressor in this case was Buck Aldridge," argued Civil Rights Attorney Harry Daniels during a news conference in December. "The first person who initiated some type of force was Buck Aldridge."
Before working in Camden County, Aldridge was fired from the Kingsland Police Department for violating agency policies, including the use of necessary and appropriate force policy.
In a press release, Daniels said Aldridge also threw a woman to the ground during a traffic stop before handcuffing her.
READ MORE: The Camden deputy who killed Leonard Cure was fired from the Kingsland Police Department in 2017
Cure's killing was the 80th officer-involved shooting the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated in 2023.
Just three years before his death, Cure was fully exonerated based on findings of "actual innocence" after spending 16 years in prison for an armed robbery at a Walgreens in Broward County he did not commit, according to the Innocence Project of Florida.
"I want justice for my brother, and justice for my brother looks like this guy going to jail for at least 16 years, which is what my brother served for doing nothing," said Michael Cure, Leonard's brother.
The news conference was held on Tuesday at 10 a.m.