An NYPD sergeant on trial for fatally hurling a drink cooler at a scooter-riding drug suspect took the stand to defend himself Monday — testifying he was making an attempt to save lots of different officers’ lives on the time.
“I assumed he was going to kill my guys,” Sgt. Erik Duran stated on the stand in Bronx Supreme Court docket, the place he’s charged with manslaughter for inflicting the Aug. 23, 2023, dying of Eric Duprey.
“He was going so quick he’s gonna crash proper into them,” Duran, 38, stated.
The officer had been supervising an undercover buy-and-bust operation on Aqueduct Avenue close to West one hundred and ninetieth Road in Kingsbridge Heights when prosecutors cost he recklessly grabbed the total Igloo cooler and chucked it at Duprey, 30, as he fled the scene on on his motorized scooter.
After being struck, Duprey crashed right into a tree and was flung from the bike, cracking his head on the pavement and dying virtually instantly on influence.
However Duran claimed that Duprey had focused law enforcement officials by using his scooter towards them on the sidewalk.
“Sooner or later whereas I used to be going to seize that cooler, I observed it was the suspect… he appeared proper by me,” Duran testified.
“He was using so quick and he was braced. He was prepared for influence.”
Sporting a charcoal swimsuit and navy tie, Duran testified that he instantly tried to render support on the dying suspect after the crash.
“If I used to be speaking to him. I stated, ‘Are you able to hear me? Are you able to hear me?’ After which I began to note his damage, and he was in dangerous form. And I instantly yelled out, ‘Get a bus. Get a bus. Rush the bus, now. Rush the bus.
“I began to attempt to really feel for a pulse. I had my left hand on his torso, and I noticed extra blood begin popping out,” Duran testified.
“I used to be in shock, I used to be upset, and I hoped that I used to be incorrect about what I noticed along with his accidents, I’m simply hoping that I used to be incorrect. I hoped that any person in some unspecified time in the future would say he’s okay… I used to be simply hoping that I used to be incorrect.”
Duran is the primary NYPD officer to go on trial for killing somebody on obligation since a 2021 legislation got here on the books requiring the State Lawyer Normal’s Workplace to probe deaths by the hands of police.
Prosecutors with AG Letitia James’ workplace grilled him on cross examination about whether or not he wanted to make use of lethal power to defuse the state of affairs, slightly than simply step out of the best way and warn his colleagues to do the identical.
“Yeah, I may have gotten out of the best way,” Duran admitted on the stand.
“For those who may step out of the best way, in the event that they knew what was coming, they may step out of the best way too, proper?” requested prosecutor Joseph Bianco.
The sergeant claimed that his fellow officers have been dealing with the opposite method, and that he didn’t have time to alert them in regards to the bike zooming towards them.
“The one time that I needed to suppose was how you can get that motorbike to cease going at that velocity to hit my guys,” he testified.
Duran additionally appeared to attempt to downplay the influence of the cooler by claiming that it wasn’t “heavy,” regardless of proof offered at trial that it was filled with drinks and ice to the brim.
“No, it wasn’t heavy,” he insisted.
Closing statements have been set for Tuesday. The case is being heard with out a jury and Bronx Supreme Court docket Justice Man Mitchell will determine the decision.
Duran faces as much as 25 years in jail if convicted of the highest cost of second-degree manslaughter, thought the choose may additionally discover him responsible of a lesser rap of criminally negligent murder, which carries a max of 4 years behind bars.
