MINNEAPOLIS — Leneal Frazier, the man killed after a Minneapolis police officer crashed into his car while chasing another vehicle, was eulogized during a service at Shiloh Temple International Ministries Monday afternoon.
"I'll be 21-years-old this year, and they took away years that I could spend with my dad," said Frazier's daughter, Jamie Bradford.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represented George Floyd's family and is also representing Frazier's family, spoke at the service, and Bishop Richard D. Howell delivered the eulogy.
"We are losing far too many of our loved ones innocently and we have to say every time one of them is taken off the earth unjustly, we have to say his or her life mattered," said Attorney Benjamin Crump.
Members of George Floyd's family also spoke at the noon service. You can watch part of it here on KARE 11's YouTube page.
"Darnella Frazier really changed my entire life," said George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd. "If it weren't for her, we wouldn't be talking about George Floyd."
Following the early morning crash on July 6, Minneapolis Police spokesperson John Elder told reporters that the Minneapolis officer was pursuing an armed robbery and carjacking suspect on Lyndale Avenue when the police cruiser entered the intersection at 41st Street and hit a car driving westbound. It then hit another vehicle traveling south on Lyndale. The driver of the westbound vehicle, later identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner as 40-year-old Leneal Frazier, was killed.
Darnella Frazier, the Minneapolis teen who recorded the viral video of George Floyd's murder in May 2020, posted on her Facebook page that Leneal was her uncle.
In the post, Darnella wrote that the Minneapolis police "took an innocent life trying to catch someone else" and questioned why the officers continued the pursuit.
After the fatal crash, attorney Jeff Storms, Crump's co-counsel, announced the family would pursue a civil lawsuit but was waiting for more details about the incident.
A GoFundMe set up to cover Frazier's funeral costs and support his family has raised more than $30,000 as of Monday morning. According to the GoFundMe page, Frazier was the oldest of five siblings, a father of six and had one grandchild.