A cop on trial for manslaughter in the Bronx said he was trying to stop a scooter from crashing into fellow officers when he threw a water cooler to subdue a fleeing suspect, who fell off the bike and died.
Sgt. Erik Duran testified in his own defense Monday when he told a Bronx judge he was trying to protect other police officers when he hurled the red-and-white cooler filled with beverages and ice at drug suspect Eric Duprey, 30, during a buy-and-bust operation in Kingsbridge Heights.
“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran, 38, said. “I mean, I didn’t have time. All I had time for was to try again to stop or to try to get him to change directions. That’s all I had the time to think of.”
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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.
Prosecutors said Duprey had eluded several officers before Duran used both hands to grab the cooler and hurled it at Duprey. 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.
Prosecutors suggested Duran had more time to think than he let on because he chose to pick up a heavy cooler with both hands instead of warning the other cops to get out of the way.
“It wasn’t heavy,” Duran said.
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Duran said he was shocked when he saw Duprey fall, and quickly called out for an ambulance.
“I immediately ran after him,” Duran said. “I pulled him out from under the car, and I tried to render aid, and I was talking to him.
“I said, ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me?’ And then I started to notice his injuries. He was in bad shape. And I immediately yelled out, ‘Get a bus. Get a bus. Rush the bus now.’
Duran said he quickly shifted from apprehension mode to trying to save a life.
“I was in shock. I was upset and I was just hoping that I was wrong about what I saw, his injuries,” Duran said. “I was hoping that somebody at some point would say, you know he’s okay, or for the ambulance to get there. I was just hoping that I was wrong.”
Duran said he didn’t have a choice.
“He looked right through me,” Duran said. “He was riding, riding so fast, and he was braced. He was ready for impact. Hands clenched, shoulders slightly lowered, and just looking right through me.”
Cops were running a buy-and-bust operation at Aqueduct Avenue near W. 192nd Street when they nabbed the wrong guy, and Duprey took off, officials said.
Cops said Duprey, a delivery driver, was buying drugs. His family said he fled the scene because his scooter was not registered.
