Funeral held for bystander killed in police pursuit crash

Friends and family gathered at a Minneapolis church to honor the life of a man killed when a police squad car struck his vehicle while the officer was chasing a robbery suspect

Fatal Police Pursuit Memorial (Star Tribune 2021)

Friends and family gathered at a Minneapolis church to honor the life of a man killed when a police squad car struck his vehicle while the officer was chasing a robbery suspect.

A funeral for Leneal Frazier, 40, took place Monday at Shiloh Temple. The service was attended by relatives of George Floyd the Black man killed last year by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Frazier was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, whose cellphone video of Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck was viewed worldwide and helped launch a global protest movement against racial injustice.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Floyd family, said Frazier’s death is another instance of police traumatizing Black families, the Star Tribune reported.

“An innocent man minding his business, traveling in his neighborhood home to see his family and gets killed because you violated a policy,” Crump said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the police department’s pursuit policy will be reviewed.

Police have said Officer Brian Cummings had his lights and siren activated July 6 as he pursued a suspect in a carjacking and several robberies, and that the suspect ran a red light just before Cummings crashed into Frazier’s vehicle in a residential neighborhood.

Frazier’s family is calling for Cummings to be fired. The officer is currently on paid administrative leave.

Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, was among those who attended the funeral Monday. He thanked the Fraziers for supporting his family during the Chauvin trial, and offered the same in return.

“It just hurts to know that Darnella Frazier lost somebody that she loved. I was thinking about this since the day it happened,” he said.

“You’ve all been behind us from day one and we’ll continue to fight for you all and apply pressure. … We are united as one.”