Suspect arrested in "ambush" shooting which left 1 Rochester police officer dead, second wounded
A suspect has been arrested in an "ambush" shooting Thursday night in which one police officer was killed and a second wounded in Rochester, New York, officials said. The officers were sitting in a parked car as part of a plainclothes tactical unit when a gunman opened fire on them at around 9:15 p.m., authorities said.
Rochester Police Chief David Smith identified the slain officer Friday as Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year member of the department.
"Last night, Officer Mazurkiewicz and his partner, Officer Sino Seng, were attacked in a cowardly ambush and fell victim to the very violence in our community that we are trying to combat," Smith said at a press briefing Friday morning.
Mazurkiewicz was shot twice in the upper body, Smith said in a second briefing Friday evening. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Seng, who was shot once in the lower body, was treated and released from a hospital.
A 15-year-old girl who was inside a nearby home was also grazed by one of three bullets that were fired into the house, Smith said. She was not seriously hurt.
Smith reported that 21-year-old Kelvin Vickers of Boston, Massachusetts, had been arrested in connection with the shooting. He was taken into custody on one count each of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, second degree assault on an officer, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Rochester police Capt. Frank Umbrino said the two officers were sitting in an unmarked police vehicle, as part of a homicide investigation, when the suspect approached from behind the car and fired 17 rounds.
Seng was able to return fire, but did not hit the suspect, who ran away, Umbrino said.
About an hour later, Vickers was found on the second floor of a vacant home, with a 9mm handgun nearby, Umbrino disclosed. Preliminary testing revealed that the gun had been used in the shooting, Umbrino said.
Following the shooting, police raided six locations around Rochester, Umbrino said, seizing nine firearms — both handguns and assault-style rifles — along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and about 100 pounds of marijuana.
There is still no word on a motive in the shooting. Vickers is scheduled to be arraigned Saturday, according to Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley.
The officers were shot the same day that Mayor Malik Evans declared a "gun violence state of emergency" in Rochester, a city of about 200,000 on the shores of Lake Ontario.
"The trajectory, unless we change something, will be the same," Evans said, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. "We will break records in terms of the bloodshed and carnage we see in our streets."