Erik Duran, a former New York police sergeant, was sentenced on Thursday to at least three years in prison for the 2023 killing of a Bronx man whom he hit with a red cooler as the man fled arrest on a motorbike.
Mr. Duran, 38, became the first New York Police Department officer in a decade to be found guilty of killing a civilian while on duty, when he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter earlier this year. Mr. Duran, who was immediately fired after his conviction, had requested that a judge decide the case instead of a jury.
As people walked out of the courtroom after the sentencing, one supporter of the man who was killed, Eric Duprey, 30, shouted, “Nobody is above the law!”
Mr. Duran’s former colleagues had gathered thousands of signatures asking for probation. The defense was also asking for no prison time, while prosecutors planned to recommend three to nine years. A lawyer for the family of Mr. Duprey, an Uber delivery man with three children, had said that no prison sentence could serve as a “remedy” for their loved one’s killing.
Mr. Duran has been out on bail and with his family since the conviction, on Feb. 6. When asked in an interview this week what he would like to say to Mr. Duprey’s family at his sentencing, Mr. Duran said he would rather they hear the words directly from him in court.
Mr. Duprey’s mother, Gretchen Soto, planned to speak in court on Thursday. His partner, Pearl Velez, with whom he shared two children, had been praying that the judge “won’t let her down,” said Chivona Newsome, a co-founder of the New York chapter of Black Lives Matter who has supported Mr. Duprey’s family since he was killed.
Mr. Duran has maintained that he was protecting other officers from Mr. Duprey on Aug. 23, 2023, when he threw a red Igloo cooler at him. Mr. Duran was leading an undercover operation when the officers said they saw Mr. Duprey hand an officer $20 worth of cocaine.
Mr. Duprey jumped on a motorbike, and sped away toward several officers and a woman standing on the sidewalk. Mr. Duran grabbed a cooler filled with ice, soda, juice and water, and hurled it at Mr. Duprey. It struck him on the arm, causing him to lose control of the motorbike as he careened off the sidewalk and hit a tree and a parked Jeep.
“I immediately ran up to him,” Mr. Duran said during the interview. “I rendered aid as soon as I could. I had him in my arms.”
Mr. Duran said he turned Mr. Duprey over and saw blood on his head. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Mr. Duran said he was “crushed” to be convicted in Mr. Duprey’s death.
“I’m still in shock,” he said during the interview, on Tuesday. The last officer to be convicted at trial in the death of a civilian was Peter Liang, who was found guilty of manslaughter in 2016 in the shooting death of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn. Mr. Liang received probation.
Jonathan Roberts, a lawyer representing the Duprey family, said his loved ones continue “to carry the immense weight of an unimaginable loss, one that no sentence can truly remedy.”
“The family hopes the court will impose a sentence that reflects the gravity of this act and affirms the seriousness of the harm caused,” he said ahead of the sentencing.
Mr. Roberts said that Ms. Soto intends to talk in court about the son she lost, rather than condemn Mr. Duran.
The former police sergeant said he was leaning on the support of his family and former colleagues. Since his conviction, dozens of people had submitted letters to the judge. A petition by the Sergeants Benevolent Association had garnered more than 11,000 signatures, including about 7,200 from people who work at the Police Department.
He also added a new lawyer for his legal team: Arthur L. Aidala. In 2024, Mr. Aidala won an appeal that overturned the felony sex crimes conviction of the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
On Tuesday, at Mr. Aidala’s office in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Duran pulled a gold medallion out of his wallet. He said it was blessed at his grandmother’s church in Ecuador. Next to it was a prayer card with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a gift from his mother.
He said he would have both of those objects with him when he was sentenced.
Mr. Duran said he had spent the time since his conviction thinking back to his childhood. He grew up in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx, near the courthouse where his trial was held. He used to play basketball two blocks away from it. He married his wife in the courthouse next door. They have three children.
The son of Ecuadorean immigrants, Mr. Duran joined the Police Department in 2010 and briefly worked in the 44th Precinct, where he was raised, before he was transferred to another Bronx precinct. Later on, he worked with domestic violence victims.
In 2018, he returned to the 44th Precinct. “I wanted to go back home,” he said.
Now, Ms. Newsome, the activist, said he deserves incarceration.
“Real justice would be him missing 15 birthdays with his children,” she said ahead of the sentencing.
But for Mr. Duprey’s mother, there was little consolation in knowing that Mr. Duran could be sent away, Mr. Roberts, her lawyer, said.
“His life is ruined, as it should be, because he took her son’s life,” he said. “She hopes that he goes to jail, but she knows it’s not going to bring her son back.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
The post Former N.Y.P.D. Sergeant Gets at Least 3 Years in Bronx Man’s Killing appeared first on New York Times.
