The city of Minneapolis is settling a lawsuit with the family of Leneal Frazier, a 40-year-old man who was killed when a speeding Minneapolis police car collided with him in 2021.
Frazier’s SUV was broadsided at the intersection of N. Lyndale and 41st avenues by officer Brian Cummings as Cummings sped through a red light while pursuing a carjacking suspect. The pursuit covered three miles, with Cummings running eight stop signs, at one point topping 100 mph. He was going 89 mph when he ran the red light and crashed.
Frazier was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose cellphone video of George Floyd’s death in May 2020 helped convict former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
The Minneapolis City Council voted 10-0 Thursday to approve a $475,000 settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the sister and other relatives of Frazier.
Cummings, a 14-year Minneapolis Police Department veteran, pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in April 2023 and was sentenced to a nine-month term combining time in the workhouse and electronic home monitoring.
The lawsuit alleged MPD has a long history of causing deadly crashes and never disciplined Cummings for his penchant for reckless pursuits, saying Black drivers are disproportionately victimized.
At the time of the crash, a police spokesman said the pursuit was allowed under department policy because the driver was suspected of multiple violent felonies.
The suit said MPD knew that the practice of its officers, and Cummings in particular, “engaging in dangerous high-speed pursuits had the natural and probable consequence of causing significant injury and/or death of MPD officers.”
