{"id":121137,"date":"2026-02-03T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121137\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:13:09","slug":"nypd-cooler-death-trial-closing-arguments-for-sergeant-erik-duran-charged-with-killing-suspect-in-botched-arrest-in-bronx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121137\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD cooler death: Trial closing arguments for sergeant Erik Duran charged with killing suspect in botched arrest in Bronx"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) — Happening today: closing arguments in the trial of NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran, who is accused of hurling a cooler at a drug suspect<\/a> as he fled arrest in the Bronx, killing the man.<\/p>\n

Duran was indicted on manslaughter charges<\/a> in the Aug. 2023 death of 30-year-old Eric Duprey, a delivery worker suspected of drug dealing.<\/p>\n

Duprey fled a narcotics sting, speeding off on a scooter.<\/p>\n

Duran grabbed a white plastic cooler and “forcefully threw” it at Duprey, striking him in the head. Duprey lost control of his scooter and crashed into a tree.<\/p>\n

Duran testified that he thought Duprey was trying to get away on a scooter after allegedly selling drugs to an undercover officer. He said he thought Duprey was going to crash into other police officers.<\/p>\n

During opening statements prosecutors said Duran threw a loaded cooler at Dupree’s head “with such force it knocked him off the scooter causing him to crash into the pavement, split his head open and die almost instantaneously.”<\/p>\n

The defense attorney claimed the only thing available was a cooler and that Duran didn’t know if it was full or empty.<\/p>\n

Duran pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter assault and criminally negligent homicide and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years behind bars if convicted.<\/p>\n

Following closing arguments, a judge could make a ruling immediately or wait for a later date.<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) — Happening today: closing arguments in the trial of NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran, who is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[53120,53119,128,9,24,63,53118,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-121137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-53120","9":"tag-a-delivery-worker-suspected-of-drug-dealing","10":"tag-bronx","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nypd-sgt-erik-duran-faces-manslaughter-charges-after-he-allegedly-hurled-a-cooler-at-eric-duprey","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}