Man convicted in ambush killing of police officer, other murders during violent spree in New York

A man who authorities say killed an upstate New York police officer and wounded another in an ambush after having fatally shot two other people during a three-day spree of violence last year was convicted Friday of multiple murder charges and other crimes.

A Monroe County jury found Kelvin Vickers, 22, from Boston, guilty of killing Rochester officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz and two other men, as well as wounding officer Sino Seng and another man. Sentencing was set for Dec. 7, and Vickers faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vickers’ lawyer, Michael Schiano, said an appeal of the verdicts is planned, partially because there was no conclusive evidence that Vickers was the shooter. He also criticized the decision to have one trial for both the shootings of the officers and the shootings of the other men.

“They put these two murder indictments together and I think based on that, it was very difficult to have a fair trial,” Schiano said in a phone interview Friday night.

Vickers had been called to Rochester by a drug-selling group to help in a turf war against another group, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said. Vickers had a lengthy criminal record in the Boston area, she said.

In the early morning hours of July 20, 2022 in Rochester, prosecutors said, Vickers shot three men, killing Richard Collinge and MyJel Rand and wounding Tireek Burden, who survived.

The next day, Mazurkiewicz and Seng were on a undercover, plainclothes detail staking out an area because of violence there. They were in an unmarked van when Vickers snuck up and fired numerous shots, authorities said. One penetrated a house and wounded a 15-year-old girl inside.

Prosecutors said Vickers also was responsible for a car fire that spread to a house.

Vickers was convicted of aggravated murder of a police officer, four counts of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, several assault charges, arson and multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon.

“Over 72 hours, Kelvin Vickers caused chaos and mayhem in the City of Rochester,” Doorley said in a statement. “There is only one course under law that is appropriate for Kelvin Vickers. That would be for him to spend the rest of his life in the New York State Department of Corrections.”