[Update: Videos show fatal encounter.]
A person who was wrongfully convicted and spent greater than 16 years in jail earlier than being launched in 2020 was fatally shot on Monday by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia throughout a visitors cease, the authorities stated.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting an unbiased investigation of the capturing in Camden County, recognized the person, who was Black, as Leonard Allan Treatment, 53.
Mr. Treatment was the primary individual exonerated by the Broward State Legal professional’s Workplace Conviction Evaluate Unit. His case was additionally represented by the Innocence Challenge of Florida.
The bureau said in a news release {that a} Camden County deputy, whose title was not launched, initiated a visitors cease early Monday on Interstate 95, not removed from the Florida state line. A spokesman for the Camden County sheriff’s workplace stated on Tuesday that Mr. Treatment was pulled over for rushing. He was driving no less than 90 miles per hour in an space the place the pace restrict was 70, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
Mr. Treatment obtained out of the automobile on the deputy’s request and was compliant till he was beneath arrest.
“After not complying with the deputy’s request, the deputy tased Treatment,” the bureau stated. “Treatment assaulted the deputy.”
The deputy used a Taser a second time and a baton to subdue Mr. Treatment, who nonetheless didn’t comply, in line with the assertion. “The deputy pulled out his gun and shot Treatment,” the bureau stated. “EMT’s handled Treatment, however he later died.”
The deputy has been positioned on administrative go away, the sheriff’s workplace stated. It gave no additional particulars in regards to the deputy, together with how lengthy he has labored with the workplace and his file.
The outcomes of the G.B.I. investigation will likely be turned over to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit district lawyer’s workplace for evaluate. The prosecutor’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Tuesday.
The Innocence Challenge of Florida said in a statement that Mr. Treatment was heading residence after visiting his mom in South Florida when he was pulled over.
Mr. Treatment was convicted of the armed theft of a Walgreens in Broward County in 2003 and was sentenced to life in jail due to prior convictions.
In 2020, the Broward State Legal professional’s Workplace Conviction Evaluate Unit requested a decide to launch Mr. Treatment after the unit discovered issues with the case, according to The South Florida Sun Sentinel. These issues included how a suspect was recognized and the truth that an alibi for Mr. Treatment was by no means offered in courtroom.
Mr. Treatment was launched, and in December 2020, he was exonerated based mostly on findings of “precise innocence,” the Innocence Challenge of Florida stated. Officers had decided that proof, within the type of an A.T.M. receipt, had confirmed that Mr. Treatment was miles from the crime scene on the time of the theft.
Investigators inspecting the case additionally discovered {that a} picture array proven to one of many victims contained a number of images of Mr. Treatment and was in consequence unreliable and a suggestive identification process, the venture stated.
“The Leonard we knew was a sensible, humorous and sort individual,” Broward State Legal professional Harold F. Pryor said in a statement. “After he was freed and exonerated by our workplace, he visited prosecutors at our workplace and took part in coaching to assist our workers do their jobs within the fairest and most thorough means doable.”
In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida accepted a claims invoice that gave Mr. Treatment $817,000 and academic advantages for his wrongful conviction and incarceration, The Sun Sentinel reported.
Mr. Treatment acquired the compensation in August.
“He had been working a job in safety, he hoped to go to school and wished to work in broadcast radio manufacturing,” Mr. Pryor stated. “He was shopping for his first residence.”
Christine Hauser contributed reporting.
