A suspect has been arrested in an “ambush” shooting Thursday night that left one police officer dead and a second injured in Rochester, New York, authorities 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 on Friday identified the slain officer as Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year-old member of the department.
“Last night, Officer Mazurkiewicz and his partner, Officer Sino Seng, were targeted in a cowardly ambush and were victims of the same violence in our community that we are trying to combat,” Smith said in a press conference Friday morning.
Mazurkiewicz was shot twice in the upper body, Smith said at a second briefing Friday evening. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Seng, who was shot 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 the three bullets fired into the home, Smith said. She was not seriously injured.
Smith reported that Kelvin Vickers, 21, of Boston, Mass., had been arrested in connection with the shooting. He was arrested 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 vehicle as part of a homicide investigation when the suspect approached from behind the car and shoot 17 meats.
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 9 mm handgun nearby, Umbrino revealed. Preliminary evidence revealed the gun had been 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.
No word yet on a motive for the shooting. Vickers is scheduled to be arraigned Saturday, seconds Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley.
The officers were shot on the same day that Mayor Malik Evans declared a “state of emergency due to gun violence” 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 Democrat and Chronicle. “We will have records for the bloodshed and carnage we see on our streets.”
