Ex-Minneapolis Police officer Brian Cummings has been sentenced to nearly nine months in a Hennepin County Workhouse for the crash that killed 40-year-old Leneal Frazier in 2021.
Cummings will serve a total of 270 days for a criminal vehicular homicide charge that he pleaded guilty to in April. He was originally charged with 2nd-degree manslaughter but that was dropped after he pleaded guilty to the lesser count.
Cummings, who will also serve three years of probation, will be allowed to return home after just 90 days in the workhouse, which Frazier’s family criticized in comments to the Star Tribune.
The crash happened during a high-speed police chase on July 6, 2021, with Cummings pursuing a robbery suspect who was driving a stolen Kia. He admitted to running through a red light into an intersection at an “extraordinarily high rate of speed,” according to the complaint.
Surveillance video showed Cummings slammed into the driver’s side of Frazier’s Jeep at nearly 80 mph. Frazier was on his way to his longtime girlfriend’s house, FOX 9 previously reported.
According to Minneapolis police policy, officers are not supposed to pursue suspects when there is an “unreasonable risk to the officer, the public or passengers of the vehicle being pursued.” MPD updated its policy manual on July 1 and robbery is among the 11 different crimes the department can opt in for a police pursuit if necessary.
Leneal Frazier was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, whose video of the police killing of George Floyd by an MPD officer in May 2020 went viral and sparked a global anti-police brutality movement.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty provided the following statement on Wednesday:
“Community members expect that those empowered to enforce the law will not callously disregard the lives of others when they do so. Thankfully, Mr. Cummings’ criminal conduct is not representative of the many enforcement officers who act and drive responsibly with respect for the safety of our community members each and every day. Good police work is a critical part of public safety, and we expect police officers will not break the law under the pretense of enforcing the law. Mr. Cummings’ actions fell far short of those expectations."
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