The family of a bystander killed during a police chase in Minneapolis in 2021 is suing the city, claiming that dangerous activities are more common in parts of the city with predominantly black residents.
Relatives of Leneal Frazier are seeking unspecified damages for the 2021 accident, the family’s law firm, Storms Dworak LLC, said in a news release Thursday.
Former Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide last year and was sentenced to nine months in the provincial workhouse. Prosecutors said Cummings was pursuing a suspected car thief when he ran a red light and struck a car driven by Frazier, 40, of St. Paul, who died at the scene.
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Cummings was driving nearly 80 miles per hour in Minneapolis with his siren and lights activated when his police car crashed into Frazier’s vehicle on July 6, 2021, officials said. The crash ended a chase that lasted more than 20 blocks, including through residential neighborhoods where the speed limit was 25 mph.
According to the lawsuit, dangerous police pursuits are more likely to be initiated and continued in neighborhoods with a disproportionate number of black residents compared to other Minneapolis neighborhoods with predominantly white residents.
Messages were left with city spokespeople on Thursday.
Frazier, father of six children, was an uncle of Darnella Frazierwho captured the cellphone video of George Floyd’s death when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck in 2020.
NOTE: The original air date of the video for this article is August 28, 2023.
