CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. – The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into a 2022 traffic stop that involves the same deputy who earlier this month shot and killed a formerly exonerated Florida man who deputies said was resisting arrest after he was pulled over and accused of speeding and reckless driving.
News4Jax obtained video from the traffic stop out of Camden County from June 2022 that involves Camden County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Buck Aldridge who is still on administrative leave after he shot and killed Leonard Cure after he attacked him during a traffic stop earlier this month.
Former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer James Brown said he saw some of the same problems in the 2022 stop that he saw during the lead-up to the fatal shooting of Cure.
In 2022, Aldridge tried to pull over two cars that were holding up traffic, going 63 in a 70, before a high-speed chase started.
“Pull over before you kill somebody,” Aldridge said in the body camera video.
For 16 miles, he chased them. The drivers topped speeds over 120 mph and weaved through traffic. Then one of the cars crashed.
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“Show me your f****g hands, get your f**** hands up now, get em’ up,” Aldridge screamed.
A man inside the crashed car can be seen laid out across the passenger seat as Aldridge approaches.
Deputy Aldridge opened the passenger side door with his gun drawn as the suspect tried to say something to him.
“Get out! Get out!” Aldridge said.
The deputy then put his gun away and punched the suspect in the head as he yelled, “Shut the f*** up!”
Brown said the punch wasn’t necessary.
“You see him doing nothing in any way to attack or threaten the officer,” Brown said.
Brown said for the most part, the driver complies and raises his hands when asked.
The deputy then pulled him out of the car and another law enforcement officer approached.
They struggled to get the driver in handcuffs and in the report, they said “he continued to physically resist…pulling his hands away from up and trying to get back to his feet.”
Then, 36 seconds later, another deputy and Aldridge pull out their Tasers.
They shocked him and he screamed and they said again to put his hands behind his back.
The driver remained on his stomach and Deputy Ryan Sullivan brought out his K9 who then bit the driver’s right arm.
The driver tried to push the dog’s face off him then Sullivan punched the suspect in the face as Aldridge pointed his Taser.
“It looks like to me you got a lot of deputies. There’s no, there’s no coordinated effort to work in conjunction. According to his report, he said the driver was physically resisting him, I don’t see that,” Brown said. “Then you have the dog come up, that’s biting him. He’s not worried about putting his hands behind his back. He’s probably in pain. So a lot of that, I’d say is definitely a training issue. Which sometimes officers can get caught up in the moment, but then again, you’re supposed to be a professional and pretty much trained to handle that.”
Deputy Aldridge then shocked him again. The driver then sat up, despite commands to roll over, and Aldridge shocked him again.
The deputies were eventually able to get him in handcuffs.
The man was arrested and accused of fleeing, reckless driving, trafficking in illegal drugs and possession. No gun was found.
Brown was asked how the deputy’s actions during the 2022 stop can be compared to how he handled the traffic stop involving Cure.
“I can see the comparison thing would be poor decision-making,” Brown said. “Here you see him confront an individual well before his backup gets there. And you had the same thing in the previous incident. You obviously had signs that this could be a lot more of a problematic arrest than you expected.”
News4JAX also asked Brown if he thought it was necessary for the suspect to be pulled over for doing 63 in a 70 and he said the deputy was investigating why traffic was being slowed so the pursuit was justified.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Office said the finding of the GBI investigation will end with a decision on what actions to take.
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