Ex-MPD officer sentenced to 9 months in workhouse for chase that caused fatal crash

The former Minneapolis police officer who killed an innocent driver during a high-speed chase two years ago was ordered Wednesday to serve nine months in the county workhouse — and he will be eligible for electric home monitoring in three months.

Brian Cummings pleaded guilty in April to criminal vehicular homicide for the brief chase that reached speeds up to 100 mph throughout residential streets in north Minneapolis before his squad ran a red light and struck a Jeep driven by Leneal Frazier on July 6, 2021. Cummings was chasing a carjacking suspect who escaped but has since been arrested and stands charged of multiple robberies and causing a death by fleeing police.

Cummings addressed the court briefly before handed his sentence.

"I'd like to take this time to acknowledge the great pain and suffering the Frazier family is experiencing," he said, while offering "my most heartfelt apology in the untimely death of Mr. Frazier."

The ex-officer, who had his family and some colleagues there in support, added that he hopes the Fraziers can find "peace and healing, too."

Frazier, 40, of St. Paul, was a father of six and the uncle of Darnella Frazier, the teen who recorded ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes until he died in 2020.

His mother, siblings and children filled the courtroom for sentencing, knowing that Cummings' plea agreement would result in him serving a year or less. Such lenient time served for criminal vehicular homicide is the norm, state data show..

Frazier's uncle Dwayne Jackson brought along the ashes of his nephew. He held the urn as he told Hennepin County District Judge Tamara Garcia that if a non-officer killed someone, they wouldn't be looking at this light consequence.

"It's not right that the officer gets less time for murder," Jackson said. "If we go out and do things like that to each other we would be blessed at getting a year — A year? That's all he get? It shouldn't be like that."

Cummings' attorneys, Thomas Plunkett and Deborah Ellis, asked Garcia for 400 hours of community service. They argued that unlike other cases of criminal vehicular homicide, this one involved an on-duty officer who was engaged in lawful activity before he broke department policy by driving with gross negligence and disregarding public safety.

The pursuit lasted less than 2 minutes and covered approximately 1.5 miles. Defense said the former officer's actions "arose out of legitimate, law enforcement action initiated by a solid, well-respected officer with an impeccable record." And at the time, Minneapolis was experiencing an uptick in carjackings. They also noted that pursuits often result in fatalities.

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office found that between 2013 and 2020, police pursuits resulted in 40 fatalities, according to court filings.

Prosecutor Joshua Larson said that Cummings initiated a staggering number of pursuits leading up to the fatality. According to data from MPD, Larson said that Cummings had 12 pursuits in six months— that's 1/10th of all pursuits for the entire department that year.

"The defendant is not here because of police work he did right," Larson said. "He chose to drive 100 mph into a blind intersection... We are here because during the pursuit of the Kia the defendant became so singularly focused on chasing that Kia that he abandoned the norms and standards of how a police officer must drive.

"He chose to endanger it all — his life, Mr. Frazier's life, everything."

But Larson also noted that Cummings is the first officer in the state to plead guilty to homicide without any prior conviction or sentence elsewhere. That being said, Larson added the duty of officers is "keep the danger at bay but please in doing so do not become the danger."

In a chase one month before the fatal crash, Cummings sped up to 102 mph on North Second Street and received no negative feedback from supervisors, defense argued.

According to charges, Cummings was pursuing a stolen Kia carjacked at gunpoint. The chase stretched about 20 residential blocks where the speed limits are posted at 25 mph. He was traveling about 78 mph when he hit Frazier at the intersection of N. Lyndale and 41st avenues.

Police arrested the suspected carjacker, James Jones-Drain, 18 months after the crash. Jones-Drain, who had a dozen outstanding warrants on charges that included homicide and robbery, narrowly missed Frazier's SUV.

Larson said the light was red for more than 20 seconds when Cummings ran it and failed to slow down in any meaningful way — conduct that he said "was totally unacceptable."

"He was going way too fast down a residential street at night in north Minneapolis."

Frazier's brother Richard Frazier was in disbelief over the fact that Cummings will be allowed to go home to his family within 90 days after he reports to the county workhouse July 26.

"It's a smack in the face and there's nothing we can do about it. We can scream and shout all day long ... but we have to suck it up and continue to live. And to realize that my brother's life didn't mean nothing to him. It didn't' mean nothing to him. He's going 100 mph, somebody had to die."

The Frazier family's attorney Jeff Storms is pursuing civil litigation against the city for what he said are failed police pursuit policies. Mayor Jacob Frey said in the aftermath of Frazier's death that the city would again review policies after the city in 2019 restricted police pursuits. Earlier this year, Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara relaxed pursuit policy to allow officers to chase fleeing suspects involved in certain firearm-related offenses, a change he says is meant to help curb rampant gun violence.

"We need a legislative response," Storms said, "because there is not remotely enough accountability for what's happened in terms of loss of Mr. Frazier's life. If the cities are going to continue to loosen the ability for chases to occur, we need the state to step in and have stricter laws and they should do so in the name of Leneal Frazier."

Frazier's daughter, Lanesha Frazier, wore sunglasses in front of the judge to conceal her tears. But her wails reverberated in the courtroom. She said her dad was her best friend and she still tries in vain to call him.

"That was my best friend and now I don't have him anymore because of this man," she said. "I'm asking today for this man to go to jail. Why should he be out here free while were out here suffering? I see my dad in a urn and he's still alive."