Former NYPD officer gets 3 to 9 years in prison for throwing a cooler that caused fatal crash | CNN

A former New York City police sergeant was sentenced Thursday to three to nine years in prison for tossing a picnic cooler full of drinks at a fleeing suspect, who then crashed his motorized scooter and died. The ex-officer, Erik Duran, was convicted of manslaughter in the 2023 death of Eric Duprey. The former sergeant said he was trying to protect other officers from the approaching scooter. “I took this job to save lives. I felt terrible once I saw Eric Duprey crash,” Duran told the court Thursday, saying he “did everything he could” to attend to the man’s injuries. “I never wanted this to happen,” he added, addressing Duprey’s family directly in Spanish that a court interpreter translated. Duprey’s mother, Gretchen Soto, wept as the ex-officer spoke. She had told the court a half hour earlier: “There are no words to express what I feel.” Judge Guy Mitchell said he did not accept the ex-sergeant’s defense that his actions were justified. “It is the court’s belief that the defendant, Sgt. Duran, was upset that Mr. Duprey was getting away” and reacted by hurling the cooler, Mitchell said. The case has animated police on one hand and accountability acti