Feds allege gang member carjacked rival, posted video of attack online
An alleged Minneapolis gang member is facing federal charges after allegedly posting video of himself carjacking a rival. Prosecutors say that Leneal Lamont Frazier Jr., 22, posted the video to Facebook early Tuesday.
It shows Frazier, who is suspected of being a member of the Sayless gang, a subset of the Highs street gang, sitting in the back seat of a vehicle and holding the driver, a member of the rival Lows, at gunpoint as the victim bleeds from a head laceration.
Frazier is charged with carjacking, using a firearm in a violent crime, and possessing a firearm as a felon.
Minneapolis Police Sgt. David Ligneel, who is part of of a joint MPD-FBI gang task force, writes in an affidavit that a 911 caller reported seeing the video around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
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Ligneel says law enforcement captured the video, which has since disappeared from Frazier’s Facebook page. On it, Frazier is allegedly seen and heard slapping the victim and ordering him to “individually call out certain known Lows members in an insulting manner.”
Ligneel notes in his affidavit that the “Highs have been feuding with the Lows” since the 2004 murder of Christopher Little, who was affiliated with the Lows.
The victim, who is not named in court documents, “appears to be in fear for his life,” writes Lignell. “His chest is rising in the video, he talks quietly and listens to commands that Frazier gives him.” The clip stops abruptly after six minutes, and authorities have not provided details about the victim’s condition.
After getting a search warrant for Frazier’s apartment, investigators allegedly found a Glock 9mm pistol “with an obliterated serial number and large capacity magazine.”
Frazier is prohibited from owning firearms after courts adjudicated him delinquent as a juvenile for multiple felonies, including an aggravated robbery when he was 14 years old. According to juvenile court records, Frazier “was only 12 years old when his delinquency history began.”
In 2020 Frazier pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm after police caught him carrying a gun outside a north Minneapolis liquor store. He received a five-year sentence.
Under Minnesota law, Frazier was required to serve two-thirds of the term in prison and had credit for 274 days in jail when he was sentenced. Minnesota Department of Corrections records show that Frazier was placed on “intensive supervised release” in May.
Records from the case, which originated in Hennepin County Juvenile Court, show that Frazier’s father was Leneal Frazier, 40, who was killed in 2021 when former Minneapolis Police Officer Brian Cummings ran a red light and crashed into his Jeep while pursuing another vehicle at high speed on city streets. Cummings received a nine-month sentence in July after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide.
The elder Frazier was also the uncle of Darnella Frazier, who received worldwide acclaim in 2020 for recording video of George Floyd’s murder. The footage was a key piece of prosecution evidence at former officer Derek Chauvin’s 2021 trial.
The carjacking happened a day before U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced charges against 14 suspected members of the Lows, Highs, Bloods and 10z as part of an ongoing anti-gang enforcement effort involving multiple police agencies.
In the initial round of indictments in May, federal prosecutors charged 45 defendants with gun and drug crimes. Many are also facing racketeering counts.