ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Police Chief David Smith announced the arrest of a suspect in the killing of officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz and the wounding of two others.
Mazurkiewicz, 54, was on patrol in a northeast Rochester neighborhood when he was fatally shot on Bauman Street shortly just after 9:15 p.m. Thursday. His partner, 37-year-old Sino Seng, was shot and wounded in the attack.
The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Kelvin Vickers, is being held in the Monroe County Jail and will be arraigned in city court Saturday morning. He is charged with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
A 15-year-old girl was in a nearby house and grazed by one of three shots that penetrated the walls of her house.
Investigators found Vickers a short time later in a vacant building nearby and took him into custody. Umbrino said that initial tests indicated that a 9mm handgun found near Vickers was the weapon used to shoot the two officers.
Vickers is from Boston, Umbrino said, and has an extensive criminal history.
At a news conference Friday morning, Chief Smith said Mazurkiewicz was a member of the department’s tactical unit and a 29-year veteran of the police force. Both officers were in plainclothes Thursday.
“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,” Chief Smith said at a press briefing Friday morning at Rochester’s Public Safety Building. “During this incident, the full force of the region’s law enforcement responded to the scene. This same full force is being utilized to bring whoever is responsible for this heinous act to justice.”
Umbrino said Friday evening that police had Vickers in custody within an hour of the shooting.
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