Boston man pleads not guilty in fatal shooting of NY police officer

A Boston man charged in the fatal shooting of a police officer which injured two others in Rochester, New York, pleaded not guilty Saturday.

Kelvin Vickers, 21, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault, and weapons charges in a Rochester arraignment, the Associated Press reported. He was ordered held without bail.

While a public defender represented Vickers, the Boston man indicated he would be seeking his own lawyer, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. 

Vickers is accused of ambushing two Rochester police officers who were on a stakeout Thursday night, firing 17 rounds into their unmarked, parked car in what Rochester police Chief David Smith called a “cowardly ambush.” It remains unclear why Vickers was in Rochester.

Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz, a 29-year member of the department, was killed while his partner, Officer Sino Seng, was injured. A 15-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet and was treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to Smith.

Seng, a member of the department for eight years, was recently released from Rochester General Hospital and is currently recovering at home with his wife and children, police said.

Vickers was taken into custody Thursday. A loaded 9 mm handgun was recovered from the scene that police believe to be the murder weapon, according to The Boston Globe. Vickers was sent to Monroe County Jail, where he was still being held on Saturday, the Globe reported.

Vickers has a criminal history, according to authorities, dating back to his teens. Vickers was charged as a juvenile for assault and battery on an officer, burglary-related offenses, strangulation with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, and two firearm possession offenses. As an adult, he was convicted of possessing an unlicensed gun in Bristol Superior Court.

Massachusetts court records obtained by the Globe show Vickers was born in Boston and moved to Brockton when he was a teenager.

The officers were shot the same day that Rochester Mayor Malik Evans declared a “gun violence state of emergency” after a recent uptick in shootings in the city.

“Tony Mazurkiewicz could have easily retired, but he chose to continue going on the streets because he didn’t want folks in our neighborhoods to be held hostage by the very cowards that are wreaking havoc in our community,” Evans said in a statement Friday.

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