Man imprisoned 16 years for wrongful conviction fatally shot by Georgia deputy

Salamendacious@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 912 points –
Man imprisoned 16 years for wrongful conviction fatally shot by Georgia deputy
cbsnews.com

A man who spent more than 16 years in prison in Florida on a wrongful conviction was shot and killed Monday by a sheriff's deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop, authorities and representatives said.

Leonard Allen Cure, 53, was identified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is reviewing the shooting.

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You read the article?

He cooperated at first but became violent after he was told he was being arrested, a GBI news release said.

The agency said preliminary information shows the deputy shocked the driver with a stun gun when he failed to obey commands, and the driver then began assaulting the deputy. The GBI said the deputy again tried using the stun gun and a baton to subdue him, then drew his gun and shot the driver when he continued to resist.

They tried to stun him twice, use a baton, the only option left was to use the gun. I'm not saying the story is 100% true, and I don't know what he was even arrested for in the first place, but that is exactly the kind of restrained escalation you would expect.

Edit: Added first line of the quote for further context. Can you lot just please read the fucking article? Pick your battles, this isn't a good one.

Using a stun gun on a compliant driver isn't acceptable

But the driver wasn't compliant though. He was first put under arrest, then became violent, then the stun gun came out. 2 tries with the stun gun, then the baton, then the gun.

Personally I would prefer the officer didn't have a gun, and that all handguns were banned like in other countries, but the escalation seems appropriate (at least according to the account given, no telling if it's actually true).

Controversial oppinion, perhaps: would it not have been a better option to just, give up and let him go (for now), rather than fucking shoot him? I mean, wasn't this over a traffic stop?

Maybe, maybe not. If he were to then go off and commit a serious crime, people would be asking why the officer let him get away.

Are you saying police should shoot people during routine traffic stops just in case, because they might otherwise commit a serious crime at a later date?

He was already wrongfully locked up for 16 years and they wanted him back in jail again, that's all.

When he quite rightfully resisted, they murdered him.

It was 100% purposeful on the police's part.

He rightfully resisted arrest? Even if the arrest is unlawful, resisting arrest is clearly illegal.

It's a big assumption to say that they wanted him back in jail. It might be somewhat likely, but we don't know either way. We don't know the reason for his arrest.

Actually there is some nuance; most people don't know you actually do have the right to resist unlawful arrest to some extent.

Sauce

Funky, hopefully Cure's lawyers can use that.

Not after he's dead, and if that's your point, go sit down in the corner with the other bootlickers.

Are the rest of his family not called Cure?

Even if the arrest is unlawful, resisting arrest is clearly illegal.

And the punishment for breaking any law is death? Or from your prior comment:

They tried to stun him twice, use a baton, the only option left was to use the gun.

Yeah, the gun was the only option. You definitely can't just let someone run away for resisting arrest at a traffic stop. Even if you impound their now-abandoned car, they might go on a whole spree of resisting arrests or something.

In case you can't tell my tone is past sarcasm and well into disgust.

So it's ok for police to let an aggressive and violent man run loose?

Oh so he tortured him with a stun gun until he murdered him glad we got that straight

You don't have anything straight. You're just raging and irrational.

What's irrational is the fear (or possibly even hate hopefully not) that this officer had for this man.

I'm no expert but I'm inclined to think it's the fear that officers get indoctrinated with in training and from the media that causes these types of things. They went up to that car on high alert thinking they were in danger because their job is known for danger and they are trained that any incident could turn deadly. So they walk up ready to pull their weapons.

Yes. The man, on the other hand, had a rational fear of the cops given his history. No wonder he resisted - I wouldn't be surprised if he had a panic reaction to being arrested. Obviously, the best outcome would have been if he had complied, I'm not saying it's okay to resist even an illegal arrest necessarily, but sometimes you panic and react irrationally. That's just being human.