More than 11,000 cops across the US have signed a petition to keep NYPD “cooler cop” Erik Duran out of prison when he faces sentencing on a manslaughter conviction this week.
Duran, 38, a 15-year department veteran, faces up to 15 years behind bars for hurling a cooler that struck and killed Eric Duprey in the Bronx in 2023 — but his union is asking the judge not to lock him up.
“He’s the all-American kid who joined law enforcement to serve his community,” said Vincent Vallelong, president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, which started the petition.
“It’s kind of ironic you have this criminal justice reform movement and they want to take people who’ve committed violent crimes out of the prison system, yet you have someone who has never been charged with a crime before and they want to put him in the system for up to 15 years,” Vallelong said on Monday.
“That’s what he’s facing at Thursday’s sentencing,” he said. “We are appealing this case and along with over 11,000 cops from around the country who signed our petition, asking the judge for a non-incarcerated sentence while we fight his appeal.”
Duran, a married father of three and son of Ecuadorean immigrants, was conducting an undercover buy-and-bust operation in Kingsbridge Heights on Aug. 23, 2023, when Duprey jumped on a scooter and fled — prompting the veteran cop to pick up a cooler and throw it at the fleeing suspect.
The cooler hit Duprey, who slammed into a tree and was thrown from the scooter — hitting his head on the curb and dying “almost instantaneously,” prosecutors said.
Bronx prosecutors charged the cop, who went on trial and testified in February that he thought Duprey “was going to kill my guys” when he sped off on the scooter.
“He was going so fast he’s gonna crash right into them,” he said on the stand.
On Feb .6, Bronx Judge Guy Mitchell found Duran guilty of manslaughter following a non-jury trial.
Cops had packed the courtroom during the trial — and now have rallied behind Duran with the petition.
“He’s a Spanish kid who grew up in the neighborhood he polices,” Vallelong said. “He took 50-plus guns off the street and saved countless lives.”
Duran is the first NYPD cop convicted of manslaughter since rookie Peter Liang was found guilty of shooting an unarmed man in a public housing stairwell and was sentenced to five years of probation.