Man charged in fatal shooting of N.Y. police officer

Najuma WilkinsonJuly 23, 2022

Crime scene police tape in front of blue and red police lights at night. Image by Gerd Altmann

OAN NEWSROOM
UPDATED 4:30 PM PT – Saturday, July 23, 2022

A man is charged in the fatal shooting of a police officer in Rochester, New York. Police announced 21-year-old Kelvin Vickers was charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon on Friday. Vickers entered a plea of not guilty at an arraignment Saturday.

#NEW RPD confirms this 2019 mugshot is the suspect charged with killing officer Tony Mazurkiewicz last night. This photo of Kelvin Vickers is from a @bostonherald article when he faced gun charges, some of his many prior criminal charges. @13wham pic.twitter.com/AvIxvGarnJ

— Carla Rogner (@CarlaRogner) July 22, 2022

He was ordered to be held without bail and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 27. Authorities say Vickers walked up to an unmarked surveillance vehicle from behind and fired 17 rounds. He struck and killed officer Tony Mazurkiewicz and injured his partner Sino Seng.

Yesterday, a 29-year veteran of the Rochester Police Department, Officer Tony Mazurkiewicz, was shot and killed while on patrol. His partner was shot and wounded. Our prayers are with the family and friends of Officer Mazurkiewicz. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/F0KXEvoFIr

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 22, 2022

A 15-year-old girl was also grazed by a stray bullet while inside her house nearby. Officer Seng was able to make it out of the vehicle to return fire, but Vickers was left unharmed as he fled on foot. The suspect was found an hour later hiding in a crawlspace of a vacant house near the scene.

“A loaded 9 millimeter handgun was recovered in close proximity to him in the property,” said Captain Frank Umbrino. “Preliminary testing at this time is indicated that this weapon used was the weapon that killed Maz, shot officer Seng and the 15-year-old girl.”

Captain Frank Umbrino said the suspect has an extensive criminal background, including battery on an officer at the age of 12 and strangulation with a deadly weapon.

“You get used to it,” voiced Rubin Green, 84, who lives near where Officer Mazurkiewicz was killed. “We’ve been dealing with this, losing people and it ain’t stopping.”

The shooting came just hours after the city enacted a state of emergency in response to an up-tick of gun violence where before the officers death Rochester recorded at least 41 homicides this year and more than 200 others that have been shot this year so far.

Mazurkiewicz was a 29-year veteran to the force.