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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic
Minneapolis

Ex-Minneapolis cop gets 9 months for killing driver in high-speed crash

Two men walk through court
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Brian Cummings, left, leaves court on April 27 after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide. He was sentenced Wednesday to the Hennepin County workhouse for nine months.
Matt Sepic | MPR News

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Updated 12:15 p.m.

Former Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in the Hennepin County workhouse after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide in the July 2021 killing of driver Leneal Frazier.

Cummings was chasing a stolen Kia along Lyndale Avenue North at speeds near 100 miles per hour when he crashed into Frazier's Jeep as Frazier drove through an intersection at a green light.

Judge Tamara Garcia said Cummings would be eligible for electronic home monitoring after serving 90 days of his nine-month sentence in the workhouse.

Police records showed Cummings, 39, had been involved in a disproportionate number of vehicle pursuits, chasing 12 vehicles in the first half of 2021 until the crash that killed Frazier, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Joshua Larson told the court Wednesday.

Cummings was responsible for 10 percent of all Minneapolis police vehicle pursuits at that point and had an “inordinate need for speed,” Larson added.

Frazier, 40, was the father of six children and was the uncle of Darnella Frazier, the bystander who recorded video of the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.

Before Garcia delivered the sentence, Richard Frazier — wearing a shirt with his brother's photo — said Cummings deserved substantial jail time.

"This gentleman, he still gets to go home with his family. Still gets to be with them, love them,” he said. “This is how we remember our brother, with T-shirts."

Cummings apologized to the family in court. “I pray that the Frazier family will be able to find a space of peace and healing soon,” he said.

The Cummings guilty plea “is believed to be the first time in Minnesota that a police officer has pled guilty to a homicide offense without having previously been convicted and sentenced to prison or having a promise of a concurrent sentence in another jurisdiction,” the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in statement following Wednesday’s sentencing.

“Good police work is a critical part of public safety, and we expect police officers will not break the law under the pretense of enforcing the law,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in the statement. “Mr. Cummings’ actions fell far short of those expectations.”