Sgt. Erik Duran, the NYPD “Cooler Cop” who killed a fleeing drug-deal suspect in the Bronx by hurling a heavy, ice-filled cooler at him, got a three-to-nine-year prison sentence Thursday, drawing cheers from criminal justice reform advocates and vitriol from the former cop’s followers.
Duran, 38, wept as he stood before Judge Guy Mitchell in Bronx Supreme Court, telling the judge he “did everything he could” to save Eric Duprey after he crashed his motorcycle almost three years ago.
“I took this job to save lives,” Duran told the judge. “I felt terrible once I saw Eric Duprey crashed. I ran up to him immediately. I regret that this day happened.”
“I’m asking for a chance to be there for my kids,” he added before the judge announced the sentence. “One chance, that’s all.”
He spoke directly to Duprey’s grieving mother, Gretchen Soto, in Spanish.
“Ma’am, I’m really sorry of the loss of your child,” he said. “I never wanted this to happen. I pray for you and your family.”
Soto seemed unmoved by the cop’s pleas for leniency.
“There are no words for me to express what I feel,” she told the court before Duran’s remarks, before he was sentenced. “It is an unjust incident. As a mother I have to miss (my son) now every day.”
“The justice that I’m asking for is just a normal justice as any mother would,” she added.
Duprey’s partner, Orlyanis Velez, gave a blunt assessment of Duran’s apology: “That was fake.”
Outside the courthouse, Soto and Velez stood in the middle of the street flipping double middle fingers at nearby police cars.
Duran was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in February following a Bronx Criminal Court non-jury trial. He was fired by the NYPD upon his conviction.
The manslaughter conviction meant he faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
Duran is the first NYPD officer in recent memory to receive a prison sentence for killing a civilian in the course of duty. Peter Liang, who was found guilty in 2016 of manslaughter in the shooting death of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn, was sentenced to probation.
Another NYPD officer, Craig Yokemick, was sentenced to 34 months in federal prison in a 1998 Harlem case similar to Duprey’s killing — he chucked a police radio at Kenneth Banks, a drug suspect fleeing on a bicycle, killing him.
After being caught on body-worn camera selling cocaine to an undercover officer, Duprey, 30, jumped on a motorbike and fled a drug bust at Aqueduct Ave. near W. 192nd St. in Kingsbridge Heights on Aug. 23, 2023.
Duprey was speeding down the sidewalk, about to crash into a group of officers, when Duran, in an attempt to stop Duprey, lifted the cooler loaded with ice and drinks and, using both hands, hurled it at the suspect.
Duprey, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, lost control, sideswiped a tree, and was thrown off the scooter. He struck his head on the curb and landed under a parked vehicle.
Duran’s attorneys said Duprey was about to crash into other cops as he sped down the sidewalk on his motorbike. Duran threw the cooler to prevent him from doing so and protect his fellow officers, he says.
“Eric Duran should not be punished with incarceration for a decision that he made in two and a half seconds,” Duran’s attorney Andrew Quinn told Judge Mitchell. “He never intended to injure anyone.”
Duran’s incarceration, Quinn said, will have a heartbreaking effect on the 16-year NYPD veteran’s family, who won’t be able to pay the mortgage on their home.
“(He) has already been punished more than sufficiently,” Quinn said of Duran. “He has lost his job. He has lost his pension. His family no longer has security. His family no longer has health benefits. He is now the ‘Cooler Cop,’ and everywhere he applies for work he will have to admit he was convicted of a felony.”
“Make no mistake, judge, the eyes of the law enforcement community are focused on this courtroom,” Quinn added. “The sentence you impose is going to send a message that officers who make a split-second decision, a judgment call in good faith, are now looking at incarceration for an unexpected tragic outcome.”
Assistant Attorney General Joseph Bianco, who prosecuted Duran, called the cop “a person who was willing to place his interests over everybody else.”
“Sergeant Duran recklessly caused the death of another human. He did that while on duty. There is no more serious gravity of offense,” Bianco said. “This was a person who was willing to brush everything under the rug up until the moment he was convicted.”
Judge Mitchell, while noting Duran’s exemplary record with the NYPD, said he wasn’t moved by the cop’s justification for his actions.
“The court does not credit that (Duran’s) life was in danger or the life of his fellow officers,” Mitchell said. “If there was no cooler, (Duprey) could have driven right by him and got away — but he could have been captured another day.”
Mitchell also imposed the sentence as a caution to other police officers: “This court believes it will be a general deterrent in curbing the behavior of public servants, that being police officers, of violating the law when they are making attempts to stop and apprehend fleeing suspects,” he said.
On Monday, Duran’s attorneys delivered a petition of more than 10,000 signatures from law enforcement officials around the globe asking Mitchell to sentence the NYPD veteran to no time behind bars.
In response, Black Lives Matter activists on Tuesday demanded the maximum prison sentence for Duran, and went on a tour of the offices of Bronx elected officials, including Borough President Venessa Gibson, to urge them to speak out.
“It was activism that brought this case to the forefront,” activist Hawk Newsome told reporters Thursday. “It was activism that changed his name from Sgt. Erik Duran to the Cooler Killer. So when you talk about this cop who took someone’s life? You call him by his proper name, the Cooler Killer.”
Vincent Vallelong, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which put together the petition, called Thursday’s sentencing “one of the darkest days in the history of our profession.”
“It wasn’t only Sgt. Duran, a great cop, who was on trial,” Vallelong said. “Every law enforcement officer who makes a split-second decision in the performance of their duties to protect the public was also on trial. And this sentencing, which has now sent a very chilling message to every cop in the nation — that the system that we have sworn to uphold can single-handedly destroy your career and your life for doing exactly what you are trained to do.”
Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala, who recently joined Duran’s defense team, said he’s appealing the sentence. Duran is headed to Rikers Island in the interim, after the judge refused a request to stay the execution of his sentence.
“Listen, nobody is saying it’s not a tragedy. No one is saying this young man should have died. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that he was in the middle of a criminal act,” Aidala said. “He wasn’t on the motorcycle running to church because they didn’t have enough hosts on Easter Sunday.”
Later, Newsome interrupted a press conference as Aidala took the podium, yelling, “It’s a piss-poor argument! You’re gonna lose the appeal, too! You shoulda got Alex Spiro!” referring to the high-profile defense lawyer. “And guess what? The (police) union sucks now! You’re weak! No more killer cops are going free! We! Beat! You!”