Former Minneapolis officer Brian Cummings sentenced to 9 months – Regulation Officer

By Anthony Gockowski

MINNEAPOLIS – Former Minneapolis police officer Brian Cummings was sentenced Wednesday to 9 months within the Hennepin County Grownup Correctional Facility after pleading responsible to prison vehicular murder within the 2021 loss of life of Leneal Frazier. Beneath a guilty plea reached in April, a second cost of second-degree manslaughter was dismissed.

Cummings was pursuing a stolen Kia on July 6, 2021, when he entered an intersection “on a purple gentle at a very excessive price of pace” and struck Frazier’s automobile, inflicting his loss of life.

“In the present day’s sentencing sends an necessary message that each particular person in our county will probably be held accountable for his or her actions after they break the regulation. Mr. Cummings has acknowledged he had different choices that day and mustn’t have continued the pursuit by way of metropolis streets at such excessive speeds, inflicting extreme hazard to others on the street. The criminally-negligent driving to which Mr. Cummings admitted is not going to be tolerated, and he has now been held accountable within the prison authorized system,” Hennepin County Legal professional Mary Moriarty stated in a press release.

Cummings will serve three years of probation after leaving the workhouse.

His attorneys argued in courtroom filings that Cummings’ conduct “can’t be seen in a vacuum,” asking for a sentence of probation and group service.

“The very fact of the matter is that the driving force of the stolen automobile Cummings was pursuing set the stage for the deadly crash. The State can not deny that Mr. [James] Jones-Drain, the recognized driver of the Kia Sportage, shares accountability for Mr. Frazier’s loss of life,” they wrote.

Jones-Drain is going through costs of auto theft and fleeing a police officer-resulting in loss of life in connection to the incident. He’s accused of carjacking the Kia three days previous to the crash.

“Alarmingly, Mr. Jones-Drain has been recognized as a suspect in 29 robberies,” Cummings’ attorneys stated in courtroom paperwork, together with a number of robberies in Minneapolis and Robbinsdale within the hours main as much as the crash.

“In Mr. Jones-Drain’s case, the State has recognized 5 crimes of violence dedicated by Jones-Drain on July 5, 2021, hours earlier than fleeing from Officer Cummings. Briefly, Officer Cummings was not off base or remiss in his pursuit of the automobile that had been recognized as taken in a strong-arm carjacking and concerned in enterprise robberies by reportedly armed suspects on July fifth in Minneapolis,” they wrote.

Cummings’ attorneys additionally spoke to his every day wrestle with “emotions of guilt and regret.”

“Mr. Cummings has already skilled many punitive penalties on account of his crime. He sustained accidents within the collision which have by no means totally healed. He misplaced his profession in regulation enforcement and will probably be restricted in future profession alternatives. His driving privileges on this state have been revoked for 3653 days, i.e., ten years. (As a main caretaker of his two younger sons, Mr. Cummings now transports his kids to high school and different occasions by bicycle.) The gravest punishment of all, maybe, is the toll his actions have had on his psychological well being and stability. Brian Cummings has punished himself since July 2021 to the detriment of his well being and the well-being of his household. He struggles with despair, nervousness, and post-traumatic stress syndrome,” his attorneys stated.

Cummings’ sentence was decrease than the year-long sentence sought by Moriarty’s workplace.

“My ideas are with Leneal Frazier’s household, and I’m hopeful at the moment’s sentencing helps them as they go ahead with out him,” Moriarty stated. “They’ve endured an extended street to prison accountability with endurance and dignity. I can not think about their continued ache and grief, understanding their cherished one’s life was wrongfully taken by somebody sworn to guard them.”

This text initially appeared at Alpha News and was reprinted with permission. 

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