A cooler used by a cop to knock a fleeing drug suspect off his scooter in the Bronx before he crashed and died was filled with juice and ice for kids having a picnic, the cooler’s owner said Thursday.
The cooler that Sgt. Erik Duran used in a desperate effort to subdue Eric Duprey, 30, was heavy enough that the undercover cop needed both hands to lift it and toss it at the fleeing suspect, a witness testified during Duran’s trial on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.
“There was water, juice and soda. It was for the kids,” the woman said in Spanish, through an interpreter. “It was full.”
She said the officer who threw the cooler looked very agitated.
“When I saw him pick up the cooler, I saw that he was angry,” she said.
She also testified that, after heaving the cooler at the fleeing suspect, the cop came over to her picnic table and told her, “Pick up your things and leave, it was an accident” — telling her twice that it was an “accident.”
Cops were running a buy-and-bust operation at Aqueduct Ave. near W. 192nd St. in Kingsbridge Heights when they nabbed the wrong guy, and Duprey took off, officials said.
Prosecutors said Duprey had eluded several officers before Duran used both hands to grab a red-and-white cooler filled with beverages and ice, and hurled it at Duprey’s head.
cop cooler nyc scooter fatal crash
Obtained by Daily News 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.
Duprey, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, lost control, sideswiped a tree and was thrown off the scooter, officials said. He struck his head on the curb and landed under a parked vehicle.
He died at the scene.
Duran’s lawyers said the veteran cop, 38, saved people on the street and sidewalk from a reckless rider.
Cops said Duprey, a delivery driver, was buying drugs. His family said he fled the scene because his scooter was not registered.
“I’m so mad and sad at the same time,” said the victim’s wife, Pearl Velez. “I’m not happy to be in this place going through this, but I believe in justice.“
