Friday’s Headlines: Chased to Death Edition

A man is dead after an NYPD officer chucked a cooler at him as he fled an alleged drug bust on a moped in the Kingsbridge Heights section of the Bronx, according to reports in the Daily News, Gothamist and The Post.

Eric Duprey, 30, lost control of the vehicle, crashed it into metal barricade and then fell onto the ground, according to video obtained by the Associated Press. Sgt. Erik Duran, who threw the cooler, has been demoted, police officials said.

Duprey's mother, meanwhile, told the AP that the NYPD's story here is "all lies."

“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 news service.

NYPD vehicular pursuits have increased 600 percent this year compared to last, as The City has documented. The tactic has a body count: Duprey could be the first chase-related fatality of the year, but many more New Yorkers have been injured by drivers fleeing cops at high speed.

Attorney General Letitia James has already pledged to investigate, according to Patch.

In other news:

• Myth, busted: wheelchair users benefit from bike lanes, too. (The Spinoff)
• Whiny car drivers lose their minds over the actual definition of a "transportation desert." (Queens Chronicle)
• Two dead after one Honda collides with another going against traffic on the Whitestone Expressway. (Gothamist)
• OMNY is finally coming to the Roosevelt Island Tram and ... soon ... the JFK AirTrain. (NY Post)
• CBS gets its viewers revved up about "trolley cars" coming back to New York.
• A hit-and-run driver was finally arrested nearly two years after killing a married couple on New Year's morning in Queens. (Daily News)
• And finally: a major update for Canarsie greenway-bound cyclists, courtesy of the city Department of Design and Construction: