A former NYPD sergeant was sentenced to three-to-nine years in prison Thursday for hurling a drink cooler at a scooter-riding drug suspect, killing him, in The Bronx.
Erik Duran, 38, learned his fate after being found guilty of manslaughter in February for causing the Aug. 23, 2023 death of Eric Duprey — becoming first NYPD officer convicted of killing someone while on duty in a decade.
Judge Guy Mitchell announced the sentence inside a packed Bronx courtroom filled with police officers on one side of the gallery, and a mix of Duprey’s relatives and activists on the other side.
The rare guilty verdict for an on-duty cop came after evidence revealed Duran chucking the full Igloo cooler at Duprey, who was riding his motorbike on a Kingsbridge Heights sidewalk after selling $20 worth of cocaine to an undercover officer.
Duran took the stand in his own defense during the three-week Bronx Supreme Court trial and claimed he threw the cooler to protect his fellow officers, who he said Duprey was zooming toward on his scooter.
“I thought he was going to kill my guys,” Duran testified.
But prosecutors argued that Duran chose to throw Duprey to stop him from fleeing the scene and avoiding arrest.
After being struck in the arm by the cooler, Duprey crashed into a tree and was flung from the bike, cracking his head on the pavement. He died almost immediately on impact.
Duran opted for a bench trial, decided by a judge rather than a Bronx jury.
Judge Mitchell ultimately found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter, ruling that Duran’s use of “deadly force” was not justified.
The judge had a wide range of sentencing options, from sending Duran to prison for up to 15 years in prison or opting to give him a no-jail sentence.
More than 11,000 cops across the US had signed a petition, organized by the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association, urging the judge to keep Duran out of prison.
Duran was fired from the NYPD as a result of the guilty verdict.
He was the first NYPD officer to go on trial for killing someone on duty since a 2015 law came on the books requiring the State Attorney General’s Office to probe deaths at the hands of police.
The last officer convicted for an on-duty killing before him was Peter Liang, who in 2016 was found guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting unarmed Akai Gurley in a darkened public housing stairwell.
Liang was sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service.
