Officer Mazurkiewicz’s widow cries as jury watches video of moments before fatal ambush

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – As the jury watched video Wednesday of the moments before RPD Officer Tony Mazurkiewicz was fatally shot, his wife Lynn quietly cried. The captain of the Tactical Unit sat behind her, gently rubbing her shoulders, her son sitting next to her.

Wednesday was day eight in the trial of Kelvin Vickers, continuing testimony that’s trying to connect Vickers to the ambush of two Rochester Police officers.

Vickers is on trial for killing Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz and wounding of Officer Sino Seng on Bauman Street in July 2022 while they were working undercover.

In total, Vickers is facing 24 charges for crimes that happened over the span of three days in July of 2022. Prosecutors say that Vickers is a gang member brought in from Boston during a turf war between factions over the illegal marijuana trade.

Vickers is also accused of shooting three other men on North Clinton Avenue the day earlier. Two of those men, Ricky Collinge Jr. and MyJel Rand, died. Mazurkiewicz and his partner were investigating those murders and an illegal marijuana trade when they were ambushed in their unmarked cars.

The district attorney showed surveillance video from the drug houses along Laser Street in Rochester where Kelvin Vickers was staying when she said he ambushed the mini-van Officer Mazurkiewicz was sitting during an undercover detail and killed him.

Vicker’s defense attorneys have argued there was an on-going gang war in that area and indicated their client didn’t know Mazurkiewicz was a cop.

Well, you can imagine how difficult an afternoon this has been for the Mazurkiewicz family. They sat in the courtroom watching this video right along with the jury, knowing what happened at the end of it.

The two homes along Laser Street where investigators say Kelvin Vickers was staying when he shot and killed Officer Mazurkiewicz and wounded Officer Seno Seng, were drug packaging and distribution sites. So, they had several cameras both inside and outside. Investigators confiscated those systems with search warrants and collected all the video evidence of Vicker’s movements in the hours leading up to the shooting.

Vicker’s defense attorney continues to argue that the street was rife with crime and his client was on edge that rival gang members were out to get him.

“If you listen to the testimony since day one, I think every single witness has testified basically saying there’s nothing but shots fired in that whole area almost on a daily basis. So, this is an area of the city that’s very dangerous, there’s been a ton of guns found in that area, a ton of casing in that area,” said Mike Schiano, Vicker’s defense attorney.

Thursday, testimony from Rochester Police Officer Seno Seng is expected. He was in that minivan with officer Tony Mazurkiewicz and was shot three times, twice in the legs and once in the hand.

Prosecutors are expecting to wrap up their case against Kelvin Vickers by the end of the week. Then, his attorneys will have their turn at presenting a defense.