Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman vowed to immediately pardon newly jailed NYPD “cooler cop” Erik Duran if he is elected governor in November.
Blakeman, who is now serving as Nassau County executive, said Duran, who was sentenced to at least three years in prison for hurling a cooler that killed a drug suspect in 2023, doesn’t belong behind bars.
“County Executive Blakeman will be making a strong statement in support of Sgt. Duran, consistent with his commitment to back law enforcement and make every neighborhood in New York safer,” the Long Island pol’s campaign said in a statement to The Post.
Blakeman, a 70-year-old conservative who has embraced President Trump’s agenda, received the endorsement from the White House last year to take on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Duran was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter last week at a non-jury trial before Bronx Judge Guy Mitchell in the freak death of 30-year-old Eric Duprey during an undercover “buy and bust” operation.
According to police, Duprey tried to flee the scene in Kingsbridge on Aug. 23, 2023, by hopping on a scooter to get away — when Duran picked up a cooler and hurled it.
The cooler struck Duprey in the head, causing a fatal wreck.
Duran, a 38-year-old married dad of three, was a 13-year veteran with a distinguished career record before the freak mishap that ended up with the sentence of three-to-9 years in prison.
NYPD rank-and-file cops and his union rep rallied behind Duran — to no avail.
Even a petition signed by more than 11,000 cops throughout the US asking that Duran receive probation instead of prison time did not sway the judge at sentencing.
“It wasn’t only Sgt. Duran, a great cop, who was on trial,” NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong said in a statement last week. “Every law enforcement officer who makes a split-second decision in the performance of their duties to protect the public was also on that trial.”
He called the judge’s sentence “the darkest day in the history of our profession.”
