Particle.news
Download on the App Store
5 ARTICLES
·
4h ago

Ex-NYPD Sergeant to Be Sentenced in Cooler-Throwing Manslaughter Case

The case underscores rare criminal accountability for on-duty police killings.

FILE - Gretchen Soto, the mother of Eric Duprey, speaks outside the Bronx Criminal Court in New York, Feb. 6, 2026, after New York police officer Erik Duran was convicted of manslaughter after he tossed a picnic cooler filled with drinks at a fleeing Duprey, causing him to fatally crash his motorized scooter. (AP Photo/Kena Betancur, File)
FILE - New York police officer Erik Duran, who is charged with hurling a plastic cooler at a man fleeing officers on a motorized scooter, causing a crash that killed the driver, arrives to his manslaughter trial at the Bronx Criminal Court in New York, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Kena Betancur, File)
Image
Image

Overview

  • Erik Duran, convicted in February in a nonjury trial, faces up to 15 years in prison at Thursday's sentencing.
  • Prosecutors say he threw a drink-filled picnic cooler that hit Eric Duprey on a scooter, causing a crash and fatal head injuries, and Duprey, a 30-year-old father of three, died almost at once.
  • Duran testified he made a split-second move to shield nearby officers and said the cooler was the only object at hand.
  • Defense lawyers filed a petition with more than 11,000 law enforcement signatures urging no jail time, as Black Lives Matter Greater New York rallied for a tougher term and said the attorney general would seek three to nine years.
  • News outlets note this is the first conviction in about a decade of a New York City officer for an on-duty killing, and the NYPD dismissed Duran after the verdict.