Family of bystander killed during car chase in Minneapolis files lawsuit

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The family of a bystander killed in a police chase in Minneapolis in 2021 is suing the city, claiming that dangerous chases are more common in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Relatives of Leneal Frazier are seeking unspecified damages for the 2021 accident, the family’s law firm, Storms Dworak LLC, said in a press release Thursday.

Former Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter last year and was sentenced to nine months in a community labor camp. Prosecutors said Cummings was chasing a suspected car thief when he ran a red light and rammed a car driven by Frazier, 40, of St. Paul, who died at the scene.

Cummings was driving nearly 80 mph in Minneapolis with his siren on and blue lights flashing when his patrol car crashed into Frazier’s vehicle on July 6, 2021, officials said. The crash ended a chase that lasted more than 20 blocks and also went through residential areas where the speed limit was 25 mph.

The lawsuit states that dangerous police chases “are more likely to begin in and proceed through neighborhoods with a disproportionately high percentage of black residents than in other predominantly white neighborhoods in Minneapolis.”

Messages were left with city spokespeople on Thursday.

Frazier, a father of six, was an uncle of Darnella Frazier, who shot the cellphone video of George Floyd’s death in 2020 as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.