A Georgia sheriff’s deputy, Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge, will not face charges for fatally shooting Leonard Cure during a violent traffic stop in 2023. Cure, 53, had been wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years before his release in 2020. The Brunswick District Attorney, Keith Higgins, deemed Aldridge’s use of force “objectively reasonable,” following an investigation. Video showed the two struggling after Aldridge attempted to arrest Cure for speeding. Cure’s attorneys criticized the decision as a failure of justice, vowing to continue seeking accountability. The family has since filed a lawsuit against Aldridge and Camden County officials.
Officials announced on Tuesday that a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia will not face charges for the fatal shooting of a Black man during a violent traffic stop in 2023. The deceased, Leonard Cure, 53, had been wrongfully incarcerated in Florida for 16 years.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office shared on social media that the district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial District, Keith Higgins, determined that the deputy, Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge, had used “objectively reasonable” force.
“Thus, pursuing criminal charges is not justified,” he stated.
Mr. Higgins, who was unavailable for comment on Wednesday, informed The Associated Press that the deputy was “overpowered” during the interaction. His conclusion followed a probe by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Cure had been exonerated and released from prison three years prior to the traffic stop that led to his death. The attorneys representing his family, Benjamin Crump and Harry Daniels, issued a statement condemning the announcement as “a devastating failure of justice, sending the message that law enforcement officers can take a life without consequence.”
“Leonard Cure was a man who had already fought valiantly to reclaim his life after a wrongful conviction, only to have it snatched away once more,” the attorneys remarked in the statement. “His family will persist in their quest for accountability, and so will we.”
On October 16, 2023, Mr. Cure, 53, was en route to his residence outside Atlanta, Georgia, following a visit with his mother in South Florida when he was stopped by Sergeant Aldridge on Interstate 95, near the state border.
According to the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Cure was stopped for exceeding 100 miles per hour in a 70 m.p.h. zone. The office later released footage of the incident, capturing Mr. Cure asserting his innocence and attempting to pull his arm away from the deputy.
When Sergeant Aldridge informed Mr. Cure that he was under arrest for speeding and reckless driving, they continued to dispute, and Mr. Cure refused to comply with the request to place his hands behind his back, as depicted in the footage.
The video also shows the deputy deploying his Taser on Mr. Cure. A struggle ensued, with both men entangled. The footage reveals Mr. Cure grabbing the deputy’s face, pushing him back, and using profanities, while Sergeant Aldridge struck him with a baton before shooting Mr. Cure.
Following the shooting, Mr. Cure’s family and attorneys suggested that his previous wrongful imprisonment may have influenced his reaction during the encounter.
He had been convicted in 2003 and received a life sentence, based on prior offenses, for armed robbery at a Walgreens in Broward County, Florida. However, in 2020, he was exonerated and released after being found “actually innocent,” according to the Innocence Project of Florida.
“This battle is not solely for Leonard’s family — it stands for every family who has endured suffering due to unregulated police violence and a systemic lack of accountability,” his family’s lawyers declared in the statement. “We will ensure that this grave injustice is not forgotten.”
After the incident, Sergeant Aldridge was placed on leave for approximately two months before returning to the administrative division of the sheriff’s office, as reported by his attorney, Adrienne Browning.
“We’re pleased he’ll continue to serve the residents of Camden County, as he has for the past 12 years,” she remarked.
In December 2023, Mr. Cure’s attorneys announced that the family was filing a lawsuit against Sergeant Aldridge, who they claimed had been terminated from a Georgia police department in 2017 for physically assaulting a woman during a traffic stop. The lawsuit also names Camden County and Sheriff Jim Proctor as additional defendants.