Ex-Minneapolis cop Brian Cummings' trial for crash that killed Laneal Frazier delayed
Brian Cummings, a former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of Laneal Frazier. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The trial of a former Minneapolis police officer, whose high-speed pursuit of a carjacking suspect led to a crash that killed 40-year-old Leneal Frazier, has been pushed back to May 2023.
Brian Cummings is charged with manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide in Frazier's death on July 6, 2021, and the case was scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 19. But a judge delayed the trial date for Cummings during a hearing on Monday.
The night of the crash, Frazier was driving west on North 41st Avenue around 12:30 a.m, on his way to his girlfriend’s house, when Cummings was pursuing an armed robbery suspect northbound on Lyndale Avenue North in his squad car and collided with Frazier's vehicle in the intersection. Frazier’s car was pushed into a nearby bus shelter. Frazier died at the hospital a short time later.
Cummings' employment with MPD ended the day after he was charged – the city has not specified whether he was fired or left the department voluntarily.
Cummings' attorney previously filed a motion to dismiss the charges, but the motion was denied.