The family of a Black man shot and killed by a Georgia deputy during a traffic stop in October filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking more than $16 million in damages over assertions that the deputy used excessive force and the sheriff who employed him ignored the officer’s history of violence.
Leonard Cure, 53, was killed three years after Florida authorities released him following a 16-year prison stay for an armed robbery he did not commit.
The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court comes after Cure was killed on Oct. 16 in a struggle with Camden County Sheriff’s Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge, who pulled him over for speeding on Interstate 95.
“It’s a terrible day when the citizens have to police the police,” Mary Cure, Leonard’s mother, said at a news conference Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in coastal Brunswick.
LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT LIVED WITHIN 5-MINUTE WALK OF UGA CRIME SCENE
The lawsuit names Aldridge and Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor as defendants, claiming they violated Cure’s constitutional rights. The lawsuit accuses Aldridge of using excessive force during the traffic stop by shocking Cure with a Taser before Cure started retaliating physically.
It also claims the sheriff created an “unnecessary danger and risk of serious harm or death, with deliberate indifference” by hiring Aldridge and keeping him in uniform despite previous uses of unlawful force.
An attorney for Aldridge, Adrienne Browning, previously said he is a “fine officer” who shot Cure in self-defense.
Dash camera and body camera…
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