More than 11,000 law enforcement officers from across the globe have signed a petition asking a Bronx judge not to throw the NYPD sergeant convicted of killing a fleeing suspect by hurling a cooler at him in prison, the Daily News has learned.
Attorneys for Sgt. Erik Duran will be presenting the signatures to Judge Guy Mitchell, who is handling the case, on Monday.
Duran, who was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2023 death of 30-year-old Eric Duprey, is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
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.
The petition asks for a “nonincarceration sentence” for Duran.
Duprey was fleeing a drug bust at Aqueduct Ave. near W. 192nd St. in Kingsbridge Heights on Aug. 23, 2023, when Duran lifted the cooler loaded with ice and drinks and, using both hands, hurled it at the suspect.
Duprey, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, lost control, sideswiped a tree, and was thrown off the scooter. He struck his head on the curb and landed under a parked vehicle.
cop cooler nyc scooter fatal crash
In the petition, officers said Duran shouldn’t be punished for making a split-second decision cops are forced to make every day.
“The job of protecting the public from criminals is inherently dangerous, and carries with it unforeseen risks. As law enforcement officers, we cannot be expected to effectively do our jobs while knowing that a good-faith decision made in a rapidly evolving situation might cost us our freedom,” the petition says. “That possibility is worsened by the fact that the career criminals we risk our lives and safety to apprehend often never see the inside of a prison.”
Duran is facing between five and 15 years in prison. He’s already been fired by the NYPD.
“The Duprey family has waited a long time for accountability,” attorney Jonathan Roberts, who is representing Duprey’s family, said in a statement to the Daily News, adding: “The family asks only that the sentence reflect the gravity of what was done. The justice system is supposed to protect all New Yorkers. It should treat the loss of Eric’s life with the seriousness that it deserves.”
An email to the state attorney general’s office, which prosecuted Duran, was not immediately returned,
Following the conviction in February, Roberts said the verdict “validates the family’s longstanding position that this tragedy stemmed from an unjustified and dangerous choice made by a police officer in a nonviolent situation.”
About 7,000 NYPD officers signed the petition. Other signatories included federal law enforcement, cops from Chicago, Phoenix, Milwaukee, Orlando, Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta. Cops from Scotland Yard and the Ottawa Police Service also signed.
Before his conviction, Duran was an active cop with more than 50 illegal firearm arrests, the petition noted.
“Stripping him of his freedom will send a message to every single police officer throughout the country,” Vincent Vallelong, the president of the NYPD’s Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, which put together the petition, told The News. “He did his job. He did the same thing every police officer would do in that situation. After this, every cop is going to be worried if their next decision is going to cost them their freedom.”
“He grew up in these neighborhoods,” Vallelong said of Duran. “He’s the one you want patrolling these neighborhoods. It’s a shame the kid died, but he put himself in that situation. He wasn’t an innocent victim.”
Duran’s trial, Vallelong said, “resulted in an unjust conviction.”
“I sat in that courtroom and don’t get how the judge rendered this decision,” he said. “People out there know that (Duran) did the right thing.”
During the bench trial, prosecutors argued that using two hands to lift the heavy cooler showed that Duran knew how dangerous striking the suspect with the weighty object could be. Duran, for his part, testified that the cooler “wasn’t heavy.”
Duran testified that he was trying to protect other police officers when he hurled the red-and-white cooler at Duprey during a buy-and-bust operation.
Cops said Duprey, a delivery driver, was buying drugs. His family claims he fled the scene because his scooter was not registered.
Duran is the first NYPD officer to be taken to trial for killing a suspect since Hugh Barry was indicted for killing Deborah Danner in 2016.