Bronx man dead after NYPD officer knocked him off a motorbike during a reported drug sale

A Bronx man was killed when an NYPD officer knocked him off a motorbike as he fled from police Wednesday, according to police and video footage of the incident.

Several media outlets reported that the officer threw a cooler at Eric Duprey as he fled from an undercover operation to catch unsuspecting drug dealers.

The plain clothes police officer was later identified by police as Sgt. Erik Duran. The news was first reported by the New York Daily News.

Surveillance footage of the incident shows Duprey riding down the sidewalk before the officer throws the cooler at him, and he crashes 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, said she used to style his hair. She described what she saw as the events unfolded the day before while holding back tears.

"There's no way in hell that in a police academy training, they show you how to throw things at people, especially to the head,” she said. "It happened in the blink of an eye. Everybody saw when that cop threw the cooler at him. it sounded so hard, like when you hit somebody with a car, a little impact … and it cracked him instantly."

Orlyanis Velez, Duprey's wife, stood at the memorial in the rain on Thursday, telling Gothamist she has yet to share the news with her two children.

"I'm just thinking right now how I'm going to tell my kids that their father's not here no more," she said. "When they ask me, 'Why?' Because an officer, police, killed my husband. Nobody knows the way that this feels."

Under the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, the NYPD has drawn scrutiny for a spike in car chases in recent months, which have sometimes resulted in fatal outcomes. Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey issued a memo earlier this month instructing that “a vehicle pursuit must be terminated whenever the risks to members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if the suspect is not immediately apprehended.”

A similar fatality took place in 1998 when 36-year-old Kenneth Banks was fleeing police in Harlem on his bicycle. A police officer threw a radio at his head, putting him into a coma for two weeks before he died. Banks’ death was ruled a homicide.

This story has been updated to include comment from Eric Duprey's wife, Orlyanis Velez.

Clarification: This story and headline has been updated to clarify the sourcing on details leading up to Eric Duprey’s death. Several media outlets reported that undercover narcotics officers were running an operation to catch unsuspecting drug dealers and that Duprey was knocked off his motorbike by a cooler. NYPD has not confirmed those details.