The death of a scooter-riding drug suspect — who crashed after an undercover NYPD sergeant threw a cooler at him in the Bronx — has been ruled a homicide, officials said Friday.
Eric Duprey, 30, died from “blunt force injuries of the head,” which he sustained Wednesday while fleeing a drug bust on Aqueduct Avenue near West 190th Street in Kingsbridge Heights, a spokesperson for the city medical examiner confirmed.
Duprey took off during a buy-and-bust operation conducted by the sergeant, Erik Duran, and was driving his scooter erratically on the street and sidewalk, sources have said.
During the escape attempt, Duran — who has since been suspended without pay — chucked a cooler at Duprey, striking him in the head from close range, according to surveillance footage of the incident.
After being hit, Duprey lost control and crashed into a parked car.
He suffered trauma to his body and was pronounced dead by EMS workers at the site of the crash.
The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Sources told The Post Duprey’s fatal injuries were caused by the crash.
Police said Duprey was running from cops after he sold drugs to the undercover officer.
Duprey’s mother, however, said the allegations were “all lies.”
Eric Duprey died from “blunt force injuries to the head,” the medical examiner ruled. Matthew McDermott
“He wasn’t fleeing. He wasn’t fleeing. He was just on the motorcycle talking to me on the video chat. And he passed by that place when all of a sudden the call cut out,” Gretchen Soto told The Associated Press in Spanish.
Soto maintained her son’s innocence.
Duprey, a father of three young children under the age of 10, worked with the city’s Parks Department before taking a job as an Uber Eats driver.
“They left three fatherless babies,” Soto said. “I’m going to get justice.”
The NYPD and US Secret Service are huddling to prep for Donald Trump’s possible indictment in Manhattan after the former president said he expected to be arrested this week and told supporters to protest, sources told The Post.
The FBI, state court officers and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have also been kept in the loop on security discussions, with the Big Apple bracing for the worst after Trump, 76, urged his followers to “take our nation back” in light of his looming indictment, police sources said.
“We will use all of our available resources,” one NYPD source said Sunday, noting that the department’s Strategic Response Group — which responds to civil unrest and major events — “has a role in this agency and when needed they will be called in.”
Officials from several agencies met on Sunday and are expected to confer again on Monday, according to sources.
Trump took to his “Truth Social” site over the weekend and said he expects to be arrested Tuesday on an indictment stemming from Bragg’s ongoing probe into alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
Former President Donald Trump said he expects to be arrested this week in Manhattan. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
The former president’s online call to supporters has federal, state and local authorities on alert, according to sources.
The sources said several agencies will meet again on Monday to discuss security measures that include restricting vehicle access to the Manhattan courthouse, and deploying inside and outside the building.
The NYPD and US Secret Service are meeting to discuss security measures in the event former President Donald Trump is indicted by the Manhattan DA’s office this week. Robert Miller
Bragg’s office has not confirmed nor denied that an indictment is imminent.
But the NYPD said it will be ready in the event Trump is charged and unrest breaks out.
“We’ll handle it like we do anything else,” NYPD Chief Kevin Maloney told The Post. “It’s lower Manhattan, there’s always plenty of police presence down there, anyway. So we’ll monitor the situation. We’ll have ample resources. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.”
Maloney said he “would assume there will be conversations with our intel bureau and stakeholders in the federal courthouse and the DA’s office.
“We’ll have an advanced heads-up, I’m sure, on the timing of this whole thing,” he added. “We’ll make sure that the entrance and exits to the courthouse are secure and if the protesters are there we’ll support their rights to peacefully protest. If they’re not there, even better.”
Bragg’s office referred a request for comment Sunday to the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies.
A Secret Service spokesman said: “To maintain the highest levels of integrity for our operations, we are not able to comment on specific protection plans or movements for any Secret Service protectee.” The FBI said it had no comment.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News Sunday that there was no immediate indication that there were violent protests planned by Trump supporters, but said the White House was keeping an eye on the situation.
“We’re always monitoring the situation here as best we can,” Kirby told the outlet. “And we obviously don’t want to see any activity grow violent, certainly nothing to the extent that we saw [during the storming of the US Capitol] on January 6, but we’re watching this closely.
“We want to see if there are protests of any kind about any issue or quite frankly, let alone this, that they’re peaceful,” he said.
Trump, in announcing his alleged pending arrest Saturday morning, chided “ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE.”
”THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he wrote.
“THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!.” he added.
