NEW YORK – A New York City police sergeant who lives in the Hudson Valley was convicted Friday of second-degree manslaughter in the 2023 death of a Bronx man who was fatally injured after the officer threw a cooler at him as he fled on a motorized scooter.
Sgt. Erik Duran, 38, of Putnam County, was found guilty following a bench trial before Judge Guy Mitchell in state Supreme Court in the Bronx. He was the first New York Police Department officer in years to be tried for killing someone while on duty. The case stemmed from the Aug. 23, 2023, death of Eric Duprey, 30, a father of three and delivery driver who had emigrated from Puerto Rico as a teenager.
“The fact that the defendant was a police officer makes no difference,” Mitchell said before reading the verdict. “He was treated as any other defendant.”
Duran faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19. Mitchell set bail at $300,000 bond or a $500,000 partially secured bond.
Duran did not appear to react as the verdict was announced, while members of Duprey’s family cried in the courtroom.
The sergeant, a member of the NYPD’s Narcotics Borough Bronx Tactical Response Unit at the time, was also charged with assault. But Mitchell dismissed that count earlier in the proceedings, saying prosecutors failed to show he intended to hurt Duprey.
Prosecutors said Duprey had sold drugs to an undercover officer and was attempting to flee when Duran grabbed a nearby red picnic cooler filled with ice, water and soda and hurled it at him. Security footage showed the cooler striking Duprey as he rode away on a motorized scooter.
The impact caused Duprey to lose control, slam into a tree and crash onto the pavement before landing beneath a parked car, according to authorities. He was not wearing a helmet and sustained fatal head injuries, dying almost instantly, prosecutors said.
A memorial for Eric Duprey is seen in the Bronx on Aug. 25, 2023. (Jake Offenhartz/AP)
Duran testified in his own defense that he had only seconds to react and was trying to protect fellow officers as Duprey sped toward them.
“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran said in court. “I didn’t have time. All I had time for was to try again to stop or to try to get him to change directions. That’s all I had the time to think of.”
Prosecutors with the state attorney general’s Office of Special Investigation argued that Duprey did not pose a threat and that Duran’s actions were reckless and negligent. They said the officer had time to warn colleagues to move, but instead threw the cooler in anger and frustration.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the conviction brought a measure of accountability.
“I offer my sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Eric Duprey,” James said in a statement. “Though it cannot return Eric to his loved ones, today’s decision gives justice to his memory.”
Under state law, the Office of Special Investigation reviews cases in which a police or peace officer may have caused a person’s death, whether on- or off-duty and regardless of whether the person was armed or in custody.
Duran had pleaded not guilty and chose to have the case decided by a judge rather than a jury. He is currently suspended with pay pending sentencing, according to the NYPD.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This article originally published at New York City sergeant convicted of manslaughter in Bronx cooler-throwing death.