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Bruce Blakeman, the Republican contender for New York’s governorship, has pledged to pardon a former NYPD sergeant involved in a controversial manslaughter case. The sergeant was convicted after using a cooler to knock a suspect off his scooter, leading to the suspect’s death.
The announcement was made by Blakeman during a press conference held Monday morning in front of New York City’s City Hall.
Sgt. Erik Duran, 38, received a prison sentence ranging from three to nine years for his role in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey, a 30-year-old suspected drug dealer.
During his sentencing at the Bronx County Hall of Justice on April 9, 2026, Duran was found guilty of manslaughter for hurling a cooler filled with drinks at Duprey. This caused Duprey to crash his motorized scooter, resulting in his death.
The prosecution, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office, had originally sought a sentence between five and 15 years.
Duprey sold drugs to an undercover officer and fled arrest on a motorized scooter before Duran, who was wearing plainclothes at the time, grabbed a bystander’s cooler and threw it at him.
It struck Duprey, who lost control of the scooter. He crashed and died.
Eric Duprey died in August 2023 when an NYPD officer threw a cooler at him as he was fleeing a drug operation in the Bronx. (WNYW)
“I took this job to save lives,” Duran told the judge at sentencing last week. “I felt terrible once I saw Eric Duprey crash.”
The NYPD sergeant is the first member of the department to be sent to prison for a duty-related death in decades.
Duran’s defense had opted for a bench trial, with no jury, under Bronx Judge Guy Mitchell, an appointee under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, in February.
Mitchell rejected Duran’s argument that the cooler throwing was justified in order to protect other officers from harm by the fleeing suspect and said the sentence would serve as a “general deterrent” for other officers.
“They had enough to investigate and catch him on a different day,” he said of Duran and other officers at the scene. “The distinction is that the deceased will no longer be seen again by his family.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman makes an announcement regarding an executive order banning transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports at county facilities in Mineola, New York, on March 18, 2024. (Adam Gray/Reuters)
Vincent Vallelong, the president of the NYPD Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, called the sentence “one of the darkest days in the history of our profession.”
“It wasn’t only Sgt. Duran, a great cop, who was on trial,” he said after sentencing Thursday. “Every law enforcement officer who makes a split second decision in the performance of their duties to protect the public, was also on trial.”
The NYPD fired Duran after his conviction, which he is expected to appeal.
Blakeman, who was commissioner of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority during the 9/11 terror attacks, is currently the county executive in Nassau County, a suburb just east of New York City. He has received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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