Kwakai Frazier’s mom says her son had no enemies and was at the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot and killed last Thursday night (Sept. 19) in Alexandria’s Braddock neighborhood. She also says that police carried her son from the crime scene to an ambulance, and fears that doing so could have led to his death.
In a vigil that lasted more than an hour, a large, silently respectful crowd laid flowers, candles and balloons in the courtyard where the 25-year-old Frazier was shot. Frazier and two others were shot, and Frazier later succumbed to his injuries.
Nicole Frazier is looking for answers regarding her son’s death, and was told by the police that her son was carried to an ambulance by a number of officers because they couldn’t get a stretcher through a large crowd of people at the scene.
“My son didn’t deserve this,” Nicole Frazier said. “He was a loving, sweet boy. Everybody loved him. He didn’t harm anyone. He was just out there at the wrong place, at the wrong time.”
Frazier continued, “My son is six-foot-five, 260 pounds. They picked him up by his arms and legs and carried him out to an ambulance when they should have kept him immobile and put pressure on the wound. Why would they do that?”
Frazier was also told by a witness that police dropped her son on the ground on the way to the ambulance, a claim disputed by Interim Police Chief Raul Pedroso.
Interim Police Chief Raul Pedroso was at the vigil, along with Sheriff Sean Casey. Pedroso confirmed that Frazier was carried out by officers and not on a stretcher.
“What I know is that the injuries were serious,” Pedroso said. “At that point, the officers wanted to get the man out, and there was a large crowd forming, and they couldn’t get medics to him. They were trying to get the body out as quickly as
they could to be able to get attention to him. It’s my understanding that the environment wasn’t cooperating. They had to make a decision. They either had to let that man be there or get him out of that environment.”
Pedroso disputes that the man was dropped.
“My understanding was they actually acted very quickly to be able to get him to help,” Pedroso said of the responding officers.
Pedroso said the department is looking for multiple suspects, and since the incident has increased surveillance in the area.
“The safety and the security of everybody here in the neighborhood is very important to us,” he said. “In light of what just happened, we’re paying extra attention to an area that we already were very in tune with.”
Anyone with information on this incident can call Alexandria Police Department Criminal Investigations Detective Stephen Riley at 703-746-6225 or [email protected]. Callers can remain anonymous.
