New York City police officer convicted of manslaughter in cooler throwing death

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer was convicted Friday of second-degree manslaughter after he tossed a picnic cooler filled with drinks at a fleeing suspect, causing the man to fatally crash his motorized scooter.

Judge Guy Mitchell handed down the guilty verdict Friday in Bronx criminal court in the case against Sgt. Erik Duran in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey.

“The fact that the defendant is a police officer has no bearing," the judge said before reading out his verdict in a brief hearing. "He's a person and will be treated as any other defendant.”

Members of Duprey’s family sobbed as the decision was read out. Orlyanis Velez, Duprey’s wife, said after that she was happy but also surprised.

“I was waiting for justice just like everybody, but when the moment happens, you can’t believe it’s happening,” she said outside of the courthouse. “It’s been a lot of time. These people been killing citizens, been killing everybody. They don’t give no reason.”

Duran didn’t appear to react when the decision was handed down and his lawyers didn’t comment after. But the police sergeants union called the verdict a “miscarriage of justice."

“Verdicts such as this send a terrible message to hard-working cops: should you use force to defend yourself, your fellow police officers or the citizens of the City, no matter how justified your actions, you risk criminal charges and conviction,” Vincent Vallelong, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association said.

Duran had been suspended with pay pending the trial, but the department confirmed Friday he was dismissed following his conviction, as state law mandates. Duran now faces up to 15 years in prison when he's sentenced March 19.

State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office prosecuted the case, offered her condolences to Duprey’s family.

“Though it cannot return Eric to his loved ones, today’s decision gives justice to his memory,” she said in a statement.

The 38-year-old Duran, who was the first New York Police Department officer in years to be tried for killing someone while on duty, also faced charges of criminally negligent homicide and assault.

But Mitchell dismissed the assault count earlier, saying prosecutors failed to show he intended to hurt Duprey. He also didn’t deliver a verdict on the criminally negligent homicide charge as he’d already found Duran guilty of the more serious manslaughter charge.

Duran had pleaded not guilty and opted for a bench trial, meaning the judge, not a jury, would render the verdict.

Authorities say that on Aug. 23, 2023, Duprey sold drugs to an undercover officer in the Bronx and then fled.

Duran, who had been part of a narcotics unit conducting the operation, is seen in security footage grabbing a nearby red cooler and quickly hurling it at Duprey in an attempt to stop him.

The container full of ice, water and sodas struck Duprey, who lost control of the scooter, slammed into a tree and crashed onto the pavement before landing under a parked car.

Prosecutors said the 30-year-old, who was not wearing a helmet, sustained fatal head injuries and died almost instantaneously.

Duran, testifying in his own defense this week, said he only had seconds to react and was trying to protect other officers from Duprey as he sped toward them. He told the court he immediately tried to render aid after seeing the extent of Duprey’s injuries.

“He was gonna crash into us,” Duran said in court. “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.”

But prosecutors maintained Duprey didn’t pose a threat and that his death wasn’t accidental but the result of Duran’s reckless, negligent and intentional actions.

They suggested the officer had enough time to warn others to move, but instead tossed the cooler in anger and frustration.

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

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, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

Hawk Newsome speaks accompanied by Gretchen Sotoaw, the mother of Eric Duprey, outside the Bronx Criminal Court in New York, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, after New York police officer Erik Duran who 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)

Gretchen Sotoaw, the mother of Eric Duprey, speaks outside the Bronx Criminal Court in New York, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, after New York police officer Erik Duran who 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)

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, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

FILE - A memorial for Eric Duprey is seen in the Bronx borough of New York, Aug. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential committee asked to find solutions for spiraling costs in college sports recommended creating a task force to look at pooling media rights, limiting coaches salaries, and rewriting eligibility and transfer-portal rules, along with at least a dozen other ideas.

A draft document of the committee's proposals, obtained by Yahoo Sports, wants Congress to quickly pass legislation that would create the task force, which would receive the antitrust exemption and the right to override individual state laws that the NCAA and other collegiate sports leaders are seeking.

The committee is the product of a White House summit called by President Donald Trump in March; Trump warned the “whole educational system” was in peril if the issues dogging sports cannot be resolved.

The document unveils a laundry list of items, all of which have been discussed in the revenue-sharing era, as schools struggle to pay players and maintain full athletic programs.

Among the more divisive ideas is pooling the media rights of the conferences — a move the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences oppose but that a group led by Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell has argued could add some $7 billion in value.

“Important to note that there are currently long-term contracts in place that expire over the next 5-7 years (e.g., ACC expires in 2036), so change will likely be an evolution to a new model,” the paper said in outlining one of the issues that would make that change so difficult.

The paper also called on the task force to create rules for “elimination of salary-cap circumvention,” — in what appears to be a reference to schools' practice of inking third-party NIL deals, often through associated multimedia rights companies, that help schools blow past the current $20.5 million limit they're allowed to pay out directly.

That issue could soon be resolved through an aribtration case brought by Nebraska football players whose NIL deals were rejected by the College Sports Commission, which was placed in charge of analyzing third-party contracts.

The draft paper calls on Congress to implement legislation before its summer break, which traditionally starts in August. Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation that would codify elements of the House settlement that put revenue-sharing into place.

Among the biggest hang-ups are the call for the antitrust exemption for the NCAA, which, under this proposal, would instead belong to a task force and then a permanent governing body that would take its place.

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, May 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - South Carolina guard Agot Makeer (44) celebrates cutting the net after South Carolina beats TCU in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament March 30, 2026, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)