MINNEAPOLIS — On Friday, attorney Jeff Storms and the family of Leneal Frazier, who was killed when a Minneapolis squad car hit his car while pursuing another vehicle, held a press conference outside City Hall to call for accountability in Frazier's death. Storms is the co-counsel of civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been retained to represent Frazier’s family.
Storms began the press conference by saying that Frazier’s death was about race.
“When someone says, ‘This isn’t about race,’ that’s ignoring the various systematic race issues that are at play here,” Storms said, citing a 2016 USA TODAY article that says Black people are three times more likely to be killed in police chases. “How law enforcement polices Black communities, the aggression with which law enforcement polices in particular our Black brothers and sisters.”
He said that there will be a civil lawsuit, but the family is still waiting on more facts about Frazier’s death to be released before moving forward.
Orlando Frazier, Leneal’s brother, also spoke at Friday’s press conference.
“My brother got taken away from us for no reason at all,” he said, adding that the family has not been able to view Leneal's body yet.
“As a family right now, yes, we’re frustrated,” he said. “We ain't never, ever experienced anything like this. They took the most important person from us. And it hurt. And yes, we want justice, because how can it keep going on like this? My family is hurting."
Jamie Bradford, Leneal’s daughter, teared up as she said, “I loved this man so much. We just started working on our bond even more, and we got to have the best conversation before he left, but it’s unfortunate. I never got to experience my dad like that, because now he’s gone."
“We’re not just on it because it’s the cops," Bradford added. "If ya’ll seen the video, the first car would have hit him first if my dad was going any faster, and we still would have been out here wanting the same justice. He was supposed to take precautions, he was supposed to slow down, make sure nobody else was coming. It's unfortunate. I hope we get justice, because my heart is broke. My soul hurt.”
Twin Cities civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was also at the press conference on Friday, said she is standing in solidarity with the Frazier family.
“They should not be going through this kind of tragedy after those of us in the community have said time and time again that we are fed up with the behavior of the Minneapolis Police Department,” she said. “What we see in this case is someone minding their own business and not even being able to make it safely to their destination because of the reckless conduct of the Minneapolis Police Department."
She called for Officer Brian Cummings, who was driving the squad car, to be fired, and for Governor Walz to have Attorney General Keith Ellison investigate the crash and bring charges against Cummings.
“There is supposed to be a policy against high-speed police chases in the city of Minneapolis," Armstrong said, "yet what we saw in this situation was the officer's reckless disregard for departmental policy, and putting people in the Black community, a lower-income Black community, at risk."