A cooler utilized by a cop to knock a fleeing drug suspect off his scooter within the Bronx earlier than he crashed and died was full of juice and ice for youths having a picnic, the cooler’s proprietor mentioned Thursday.
The cooler that Sgt. Erik Duran utilized in a determined effort to subdue Eric Duprey, 30, was heavy sufficient that the undercover cop wanted each palms to raise it and toss it on the fleeing suspect, a witness testified throughout Duran’s trial on manslaughter and criminally negligent murder expenses.
“There was water, juice and soda. It was for the children,” the girl mentioned in Spanish, by an interpreter. “It was full.”
She mentioned the officer who threw the cooler regarded very agitated.
“After I noticed him decide up the cooler, I noticed that he was offended,” she mentioned.
She additionally testified that, after heaving the cooler on the fleeing suspect, the cop came visiting to her picnic desk and informed her, “Decide up your issues and depart, it was an accident” — telling her twice that it was an “accident.”
Cops had been operating a buy-and-bust operation at Aqueduct Ave. close to W. 192nd St. in Kingsbridge Heights once they nabbed the mistaken man, and Duprey took off, officers mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Duprey had eluded a number of officers earlier than Duran used each palms to seize a red-and-white cooler full of drinks and ice, and hurled it at Duprey’s head.
cop cooler nyc scooter deadly crash
Obtained by Each day Information 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 close-by household get-together and hurled it on the man, knocking him to the bottom.
Duprey, who wasn’t carrying a helmet, misplaced management, sideswiped a tree and was thrown off the scooter, officers mentioned. He struck his head on the curb and landed underneath a parked automobile.
He died on the scene.
Duran’s legal professionals mentioned the veteran cop, 38, saved folks on the road and sidewalk from a reckless rider.
Cops mentioned Duprey, a supply driver, was shopping for medication. His household mentioned he fled the scene as a result of his scooter was not registered.
“I’m so mad and unhappy on the identical time,” mentioned the sufferer’s spouse, Pearl Velez. “I’m not glad to be on this place going by this, however I consider in justice.“
