NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced Thursday to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died.
The ex-officer, Erik Duran, was convicted of manslaughter
in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey. The former sergeant said he was trying to protect other officers from the approaching scooter.“I took this job to save lives. I felt terrible
once I saw Eric Duprey crash," Duran told the court Thursday, saying he “did everything he could” to attend to the man's injuries.
“I never wanted this to happen,” he added, addressing Duprey's family directly in Spanish that a court interpreter translated.
Duprey's mother, Gretchen Soto, wept as the ex-officer spoke . She had told the court a half-hour earlier: "There are no words to express what I feel.”
Judge Guy Mitchell said he did not accept the ex-sergeant’s defense that his actions were justified.
“It is the court’s belief that the defendant, Sgt. Duran, was upset that Mr. Duprey was getting away” and reacted by hurling the cooler, Mitchell said.
The case has animated police on one hand and accountability activists on the other. Duran's union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, says thousands of officers have signed an online petition calling for him to be spared prison.
Officers in New York Police Department jackets streamed down a Bronx courthouse hallway ahead of the sentencing Thursday, while a couple of dozen protesters demonstrated outside to demand justice for Duprey.
Prosecutors with state Attorney General Letitia James’ office sought a three-to-nine-year prison sentence for Duran, saying he recklessly caused Duprey's death.
“He did that while on duty,” then attempted to cover up his actions, prosecutor Joseph Bianco told the court.
Duran and his lawyers had not yet had their chance to speak.
Duran was part of a narcotics policing group that conducted a “buy-and-bust” operation in the Bronx on Aug. 23, 2023. Police said Duprey sold drugs to an undercover officer, then tried to flee on a scooter.
Surveillance video showed Duprey driving the motorized scooter on a sidewalk toward a group of people. As he approached, the then-sergeant — who wasn't in uniform — picked up a bystander's cooler and threw it.
The container full of ice, water and sodas struck Duprey. He lost control of the scooter, slammed into a tree and crashed onto the pavement. Duprey, 30, wasn't wearing a helmet. He sustained fatal head injuries and died almost instantly, according to prosecutors.
They argued Duran had enough time to warn others to move but instead hurled the cooler because he was angry.
Duran, however, testified at his trial that he made a split-second decision to keep other officers safe from the scooter speeding toward them.
“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran said then, adding “all I had time for was to try again to stop or to try to get him to change directions.”
Duran opted to have Mitchell, not a jury, decide the case.
Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong has said the conviction sent “a terrible message to hard-working cops” about the costs of defending themselves and fellow officers.
Duran was an NYPD officer for 13 years before he was suspended after the crash. He was dismissed from the force after his conviction this past February.
Duprey worked as a delivery driver and had three young children. His mother, Gretchen Soto, who said she was on a video call with him right before he died, has disputed the police claims that he sold drugs and fled from officers.
She told the judge Thursday her son “is not just a name, not just one more case.”
“It is an unjust incident," Soto said through a Spanish interpreter. "As a mother, I have to miss him now every day.”
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
