A man in the Bronx died after a police sergeant threw a cooler at him, causing him to fall off his motorbike. The incident has sparked an investigation by the state attorney general’s office. The sergeant, Erik Duran, has been suspended without pay, and the man on the motorbike, Eric Duprey, was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death will be determined by the city’s medical examiner.
The incident took place during an undercover operation to catch drug dealers in the area. Mr. Duprey sold narcotics to one of the officers, and when officers moved in to arrest him, he hopped on a motorbike and tried to escape. A surveillance video shows him driving onto the sidewalk towards a group of people when Sergeant Duran grabbed a cooler from a nearby table and threw it at him, causing the motorbike to skid.
Sergeant Duran, a 13-year veteran of the police department, has been suspended for 30 days. Mr. Duprey’s wife, Orlyanis Velez, has called for justice for her husband and expressed her disbelief at the officer’s actions. The New York Police Department has expressed its commitment to a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident in collaboration with the attorney general’s office.
