An NYPD officer knocked a man off a motorbike during a drug bust in the Bronx on Wednesday, according to police and video footage of the incident — and the man died shortly after.
Police were running a “buy-and-bust” sting operation in Kingsbridge Heights, police officials said, when the man tried to flee on a motorbike around 5:30 p.m. Sgt. Erik Duran threw a cooler at him, according to the state attorney general’s office. The news was first reported by the New York Daily News.
Surveillance footage of the incident shows the man, Eric Duprey, riding down the sidewalk before getting slammed by the cooler and crashing to the ground.
EMS pronounced the man dead on the scene, according to the NYPD. The city’s medical examiner is investigating the death, according to spokesperson Julie Bolcer. The state attorney general’s office is also investigating the incident.
Duran is a detective in the Bronx Narcotics Unit. The NYPD said he was suspended without pay on Thursday in an Instagram post. His suspension was effective at 3:05 a.m., “pending trial of charges pursuant to the administrative code,” according to a disciplinary record shared with Gothamist. Duran joined the NYPD in 2010.
An NYPD spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the man was fleeing police at the time nor about Duran’s role in the man’s death.
The attorney general’s office confirmed Duprey’s name and that they were investigating the incident.
Duran has received 17 allegations of police misconduct since joining the department, according to police records. The city’s independent police oversight agency substantiated one complaint of abuse of authority. The department itself disciplined Duran in July for “wrongfully stopping an individual known to the department,” records show.
Near the scene on Thursday, family members and loved ones convened near a memorial where they lit candles, comforted each other and played music in honor of Duprey, nicknamed Cuajo. Jessica Lee, 32,…
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