A suspect has been arrested in an “ambush” shooting Thursday night that left one police officer dead and another 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 around 9:15 p.m., authorities said.
Rochester Police Chief David Smith identified the slain officer Friday as Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year-old 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 at a second briefing Friday night. He was taken to hospital where he died. Seng, who was shot once in the lower body, was treated and released from the hospital.
A 15-year-old girl who was in a nearby house was also grazed by one of the three bullets fired into the house, Smith said. She was not seriously injured.
Smith said Kelvin Vickers, 21, of Boston, Mass., was arrested in connection with the shooting. He was booked on one count 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 car 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 fled, Umbrino said. About an hour later, Vickers was found on the second floor of a vacant home, with a 9mm handgun nearby, Umbrino said. Preliminary tests revealed that the gun was used in the shooting, Umbrino said.
After the shooting, police raided six locations around Rochester, Umbrino said, seizing nine firearms — both handguns and assault rifles — along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and about 100 pounds of marijuana.
There is no word yet on a motive for the shooting. Vickers is scheduled to be arraigned Saturday, according to Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley.
The officers were shot the same day Mayor Malik Evans declared a “gun violence emergency” in Rochester, a city of about 200,000 on the shores of Lake Ontario.
“The trajectory, unless we change something, is going to be the same,” Evans said, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. “We will break records in terms of the bloodshed and carnage we see on our streets.
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