New York police officer charged in cooler throw death says he was trying to protect colleagues

Audio By Carbonatix

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police sergeant who hurled a plastic cooler at a man fleeing officers on a motorized scooter, causing a crash that killed the driver, says he was trying to protect other officers from being injured.

Testifying Monday at his manslaughter trial, Erik Duran said he was not trying to injure Eric Duprey, 30, when he threw the cooler full of ice, water and sodas in August 2023. Authorities have said Duprey, a father of three, had just sold drugs to an undercover officer when he tried to drive off.

Duprey, who was not wearing a helmet, lost control of his scooter and crashed into a tree before falling to the pavement. He suffered fatal head injuries and died almost instantaneously, prosecutors said.

“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran, 38, told the court. "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.”

Besides the manslaughter charge, Duran also faces criminally negligent homicide and assault charges. The nonjury trial is being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office, which investigates civilian deaths during encounters with law enforcement.

During their cross-examination, prosecutors suggested Duran had more time to think than he suggested, saying he chose to pick up a heavy cooler with both hands instead of telling the other officers to move.

Joseph Bianco, one of the prosecutors in the case, asked Duran if he had warned his colleagues about the approaching scooter. When Duran said he didn’t have time to do that, Bianco noted that what the officer “did have time to do is to take two steps forward down that sidewalk” and pick up the cooler.

Duran disputed that the cooler was heavy. He also testified that after the crash, he immediately tried to help Duprey when he saw his injuries.

“I said, ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me?’ And then I started to notice his injury, and he was in bad shape,” Duran testified.

Duran faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the manslaughter count. Closing arguments were scheduled for Tuesday.