Darnella Frazier, the brave adolescent who documented ex-cop Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd in 2020, is saddened once more after a Minneapolis patrol car struck and murdered her uncle while following a robbery suspect.
On Tuesday night, July 6, 2021, Minneapolis police were chasing the driver of a carjacked vehicle that had been engaged in previous robberies when an officer’s squad car collided with Frazier’s uncle, Leneal Lamont Frazier’s automobile.
The 40-year-old uncle was not being pursued by cops, according to NBC News and TMZ. He was simply standing at the wrong crosswalk at the wrong moment. When the squad car slammed into Leneal Frazier’s vehicle, he was reportedly on his way to his girlfriend’s residence. According to authorities, Frazier died shortly after arriving at the hospital, and the officer involved in the deadly crash was treated for significant but non-life threatening injuries, according to NBC News.
Frazier’s mother confirmed to the media that it was her brother who was identified as the uninvolved driver who ended up dead, TMZ reported. Shortly thereafter, Darnella Frazier vented on her Facebook page, saying cops “took an innocent life trying to catch someone else.”
“I honestly can’t believe I’m making this post right now…I’m so hurt…nothing feels real. I woke up to the most horrible news. MINNEAPOLIS police Killed my uncle MY uncle… Another black man lost his life in the hands of the police! I asked my mom several times ‘he died??’ I couldn’t accept what I was hearing and still can’t.”
Screenshot of Darnella Frazier’s post (Image source: Facebook.com / @darnellareallprettymarie)
The Minnesota State Patrol has launched an investigation into the accident that claimed Frazier’s uncle’s life.
Darnella Frazier’s bravery on Memorial Day 2020, when she filmed Floyd’s final moments of life on Chauvin’s knee, shifted America’s racial paradigm and sparked an international outcry against police violence and racial injustice. For her efforts, she received a Pulitzer Prize and a BET Award.
