{"id":191009,"date":"2026-04-09T15:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191009\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:55:22","slug":"cooler-cop-nypd-sgt-erik-duran-sentenced-to-3-to-9-years-for-killing-fleeing-bronx-drug-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191009\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cooler cop’ NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran sentenced to 3 to 9 years for killing fleeing Bronx drug suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sgt. Erik Duran, the \u201cCooler Cop\u201d NYPD narcotics officer who killed a fleeing suspect by hurling a cooler<\/a> at him following a Bronx buy-and-bust operation three years ago was sentenced to three to nine years in prison Thursday.<\/p>\n

Duran, 38, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in February following a Bronx Criminal Court non-jury trial in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey<\/a>. He was fired by the NYPD upon his conviction.<\/p>\n

A manslaughter conviction usually comes with a sentence of five to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Sgt. Erik Duran is pictured during his sentencing at the Bronx Hall of Justice on April 9, 23, 2026. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

He was speeding down the sidewalk, about to crash into a group of officers, when Duran, in an attempt to stop Duprey, lifted the cooler\u00a0loaded with ice and drinks<\/a>\u00a0and, using both hands, hurled it at the suspect.<\/p>\n

Duprey, who wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Duran\u2019s attorneys delivered a petition of more than 10,000 signatures from law enforcement officials around the globe asking Judge Guy Mitchell to sentence the 16-year NYPD veteran to no time behind bars.<\/p>\n

cop cooler nyc scooter fatal crash<\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/p>\n

Obtained by Daily News<\/p>\n

Eric Duprey (pictured), a scooter-riding suspect fleeing a Bronx buy-and-bust drug sting, died Aug. 23, 2023, after an NYPD sergeant grabbed a cooler from a nearby family get-together and hurled it at the man, knocking him to the ground.<\/p>\n

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 ask them to speak out.<\/p>\n

The last NYPD officer to be convicted at trial in the death of a civilian was Peter Liang, who was found guilty in 2016 of manslaughter<\/a> in the shooting death of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn. Liang was sentenced to probation.<\/p>\n

cop cooler nyc scooter fatal crash<\/p>\n

\"EricEric Duprey, a scooter-riding suspect fleeing a Bronx buy-and-bust drug sting, died after being knocked to the ground when an NYPD cop threw a cooler (pictured) at him. (Obtained by Daily News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sgt. Erik Duran, the \u201cCooler Cop\u201d NYPD narcotics officer who killed a fleeing suspect by hurling a cooler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-191009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-crime","20":"tag-sub-county-region","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191009","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=191009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}