A 22-year-old man from Rochester, upstate New York, will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing one police officer and seriously injuring another in an ambush while the two officers were in a van. without identification carrying out surveillance work.
Monroe County Court Judge Julie Hahn sentenced Kelvin Vickers who, according to authorities, He smiled and smiled throughout the legal processto serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2022 murder of Rochester police officer Anthony Mazurkiewiczthe authorities announced.
After a four-week trial, a jury found Vickers guilty of all 26 charges brought against him, including one count of aggravated murder of a police officer, four counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder , one count of attempted aggravated murder of a police officer, as well as two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
The second police officer shot, Officer Sino Seng, survived his injuries. Vickers was also convicted of fatally shooting Richard Collinge and MyJel Rand.in the days before killing Mazurkiewicz.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley addressed reporters after the hearing and lashed out at Vickers’ seemingly arrogant attitude during the legal process.
“He thought it was a joke.”
“I kept looking back. He smiled and smiled during the sentencing, the same thing he did during the course of the trial. He thought it was a joke,” Doorley said, according to WHAM, an ABC affiliate in Rochester, New York.
“For him it was just another day. No regrets. If you look back at the actions and evidence presented during the trial, this is a cold-blooded killer. He clearly did not care about human life and If he was released tomorrow, he would probably kill again”, he indicated.
According to a news release from the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, the shooting of officers culminated a multi-day violent series of events in the Rochester area that began the night of July 19, 2022, when officers responded to an area near North Clinton Avenue and Rauber Street for reports of multiple homes and vehicles being struck by gunfire.
Officers responded to an area where they found Collinge and Rand fatally wounded and another man, Tireek Burden, who had been shot but survived his injuries.
A few hours after the shooting, authorities responded to a fire on nearby Weyl Street, where they found a car “engulfed in flames, which began to spread to a nearby home.” Vickers was found guilty of arson in connection with that incident.
The attacker ambushed the agents
On the night of July 21, police decided to put undercover officers Mazurkiewicz and Seng in an unmarked van to stake out the area. However, Vickers was reportedly able to discover that the two men were law enforcement officers.
“After passing Laser Street several times, Kelvin Vickers was observing the van. The officers parked on Bauman Street, when Kelvin Vickers discreetly emerged from the porch at 55 Laser Street, He ambushed them and shot them multiple times. against Officer Mazurkiewicz and Officer Seng,” prosecutors wrote in the statement.
Several police agencies immediately responded to the scene and both men were rushed to nearby hospitals. Seng recovered after treatment at Rochester General Hospital. Mazurkiewicz succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Vickers was arrested a short time later and authorities said the firearm used in the shooting had Vickers’ DNA.
“All of these lives were changed forever by Kelvin Vickersa man who left a path of destruction and violence in his wake,” Doorley said in a statement after the sentencing hearing.
“Today marks the conclusion of a heartbreaking chapter for the Rochester Police Department and our entire community. “This sentence was the only appropriate resolution for this man who killed three people and destroyed an entire community,” he concluded.
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