Minneapolis residents sue city, mayor over rise in crime
Former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels reacts to a lawsuit filed against the city over a rise in crime
Darnella Frazier – the teenager who recorded the viral bystander of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 – said Tuesday that her uncle was killed when a Minneapolis police car struck his uninvolved vehicle during a high-speed pursuit.
"Another black man lost his life in the hands of the police! I asked my mom several times ‘he died??’ I couldn’t accept what I was hearing and still can’t," Frazier, who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize special citation for recording the video of Floyd pinned to the pavement by Derek Chauvin, wrote on Facebook. "Minneapolis police has cost my whole family a big loss...today has been a day full of heartbreak and sadness."
Leneal Lamont Frazier, 40, was killed in a wreck that happened at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday at 41st and Lyndale avenues north in the Camden neighborhood when a Minneapolis police car plowed into him and a second vehicle at the intersection.
The crash happened while officers were pursuing a stolen vehicle believed to have been taken during a carjacking and linked to robberies at multiple businesses, police spokesman John Elder told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Officers spotted the stolen vehicle at North Sixth Street and Lowry Avenue and attempted to conduct a traffic stop – but the driver fled. A police squad car, traveling northbound on Lyndale, struck Frazier’s Jeep traveling westbound through the intersection at 41st. The police vehicle then entered the southbound lane and hit another car – though that driver was not injured.
The suspect fled and has not been taken into custody.
Frazier was transported by ambulance to North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale where he later died from his injuries. The officer driving the police car suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries, and has since been released from the hospital.
"It’s not fair how the police can just go around killing people," Darnella Frazier added, questioning why police were conducting a high-speed chase on a residential road. She also described how she had just spent time at the beach with her uncle.
"If I would’ve known that would be my last time seeing you, I would’ve hugged you so much longer, told you I love you way harder....I love you so much.... please pray for my family," she wrote.
Elder said an internal investigation will be conducted to determine whether the police squad car had its emergency lights on and siren activated as required by Minneapolis Police Department policy. There are stoplights at the intersection where the crash occurred, though Elder referred questions about which lanes had the right of way at the time of the crash to the Minnesota State Patrol.
Investigators work the scene of a crash involving a Minneapolis police squad car Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Minneapolis. A motorist died early Tuesday in a collision involving a Minneapolis police squad car that was pursuing a robbery suspect. Police were pursuing a stolen vehicle linked to some commercial robberies when the squad car crashed into the victim's vehicle and a third vehicle about 12:30 a.m., according to authorities. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
Minneapolis Police updated its policy in 2019 after pursuits spiked by 25% over the previous three years. Under the current policy, officers are restricted from initiating pursuits or must cease pursuits in progress if it "poses an unreasonable risk to the officers, the public or passengers of the vehicle being pursued who may be unwilling participants," according to the Tribune.
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It states officers can give chase if a suspect has committed or is about to commit "a serious and violent felony or gross misdemeanor." Pursuits are also permitted if a suspect is "so flagrantly reckless that the driver would pose an imminent and life-threatening danger to the public if not apprehended."
The pursuit initiated early Tuesday "fit the criteria," Elder told the Tribune. "We are limiting what we can chase for, but these were obvious felonies."
Darnella Frazier was 17 when she recorded the arrest of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, on May 25, 2020. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee to Floyd's neck as Floyd was handcuffed and face down on the street, was convicted and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for Floyd's murder. The three other former officers who were at the scene are due to stand trial in March. All four also face federal civil rights charges.
Frazier testified at Chauvin's trial that she was walking to a corner grocery store to get snacks with her then-9-year-old cousin when she saw a man being pinned to the pavement, "terrified, scared, begging for his life," so she pulled out her cellphone and began recording.
She was given a special citation by the Pulitzer Prizes last month for her recording.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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