Bruce Blakeman didn’t wait long to make Erik Duran a campaign issue. Days after the NYPD sergeant was sentenced to at least three years in prison for hurling a cooler that killed a fleeing drug suspect, the Republican gubernatorial candidate pledged to pardon him the moment he takes office. Blakeman, currently serving as Nassau County executive, said flatly that Duran doesn’t belong behind bars.

“County Executive Blakeman will be making a strong statement in support of Sgt. Duran, consistent with his commitment to back law enforcement and make every neighborhood in New York safer,” his campaign said in a statement to The Post.

The underlying incident unfolded on Aug. 23, 2023, in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Eric Duprey, 30, was the target of an undercover buy-and-bust operation when he broke from the scene on a scooter. Duran, then 38 and a 13-year NYPD veteran, grabbed a nearby cooler and threw it. The cooler struck Duprey in the head. The resulting crash killed him.

Last week, Bronx Judge Guy Mitchell found Duran guilty of second-degree manslaughter at a non-jury trial. At sentencing, Mitchell imposed three to nine years in prison, brushing aside a petition signed by more than 11,000 police officers across the country asking that Duran receive probation instead.

The sentence drew immediate and furious condemnation from law enforcement. NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong called it “the darkest day in the history of our profession.”

“It wasn’t only Sgt. Duran, a great cop, who was on trial,” Vallelong said. “Every law enforcement officer who makes a split-second decision in the performance of their duties to protect the public was also on that trial.”

For Blakeman, a 70-year-old conservative aligned closely with President Trump — who endorsed him last year to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul — the pardon pledge is a deliberate positioning move ahead of November.

The race against Hochul was already shaping up as a referendum on public safety and the treatment of law enforcement in New York. By stepping forward on Duran within days of the sentence, Blakeman is signaling to a Republican base, and to the rank-and-file officers who rallied behind the sergeant through trial and sentencing alike, that a Blakeman administration would draw a hard line on the question of criminal liability for police conduct.

Whether that bet pays off will depend in part on how New York’s broader electorate weighs the case — a decorated officer’s split-second decision, a dead suspect, and a judge who heard the arguments and sent the cop to prison anyway.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)