'He was a great street cop.' Retired sergeant's emotional tribute to slain Rochester officer

Each evening, after the marathon miles run, the toenails deadened, the strangers met, Brett Sobieraski would retire to his recently-purchased mobile home where he would see a photo of his former Rochester Police Department colleague,  Anthony "Tony" Mazurkiewicz.

The photo and memories were what Sobieraski, a retired Rochester police sergeant, had left of Mazurkiewicz. On July 21, 2022, Mazurkiewicz was fatally shot in Rochester while on a detail trying to bring a halt to a spate of violence that police linked to a turf war over marijuana trafficking.

"It would be the first thing I would see when I woke up in the morning," Sobieraski said about the photo. And, at the end of the day, he would again see the face of Mazurkiewicz.

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In April, Sobieraski started a spate of marathon runs in Florida. An ultra-marathoner, Sobieraski had decided that he wanted to remember Mazurkiewicz with marathons through eight states — Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.

Eight is the number associated internally with the Rochester police tactical unit in which Mazurkiewicz worked; Sobieraski thought that runs through the eight Eastern states, ending in Rochester, could be a memorial to Mazurkiewicz.

He also wanted to raise money for Mazurkiewicz's family; he set what some considered an impossible goal of $100,000.

"I felt deep down that Tony's sacrifice didn't get the attention it deserved, at least locally," said Sobieraski, who previously headed the Rochester Police Department's SWAT team.

It had been almost eight years before the homicide of Mazurkiewicz when another tactical team member, Daryl Pierson, was fatally shot on duty. Before that, a Rochester police officer had not been killed in the line of duty since 1959.

Sobieraski said he thinks anti-police sentiments, as well as the recency of Pierson's murder, may have caused what he saw as something of a public apathy toward the death of Mazurkiewicz.

"We were demonized and vilified for the acts of a few criminal cops," he said.

Memories of Anthony Mazurkiewicz

Mazurkiewicz had planned to retire in April. He could have retired earlier, or chosen a job that kept him off the streets, but opted not to.

At his funeral, Sobieraski said, some retired colleagues who were around the same age as Mazurkiewicz spoke of a kind of survivor's guilt, nagging at them as they enjoyed a retirement that he would not. "It's like he got cheated out of it," Sobieraski said. "It was stolen from him."

"He could have taken any job he wanted with his experience and his resume."

Instead, Mazurkiewicz chose to be a veteran member of the tactical unit. There, Sobieraski said, Mazurkiewicz tutored younger colleagues. "That's where he felt the most comfortable, I think, because he liked helping the younger officers," Sobieraski said.

"He was a great street cop. He was like the mother hen in the tactical unit." Mazurkiewicz had an ability to connect and relate with most people, from the mayor to a homeless man, Sobieraski said

"What everyone loved about Tony was you knew exactly what he thought — good bad or indifferent," Sobieraski said. "He was never in the gray on anything. If you asked a question, you better be ready to get a very honest answer from Tony."

The presence of humanity

When Sobieraski reached Rochester on June 11, having run 50 marathons in 50 days, he was accompanied by almost 800 people who joined him for the final stretch. Downtown, at a memorial to law enforcement officers who lost their lives, nearly another 300 also joined in, including Lynn Mazurkiewicz, the widow of Tony Mazurkiewicz.

She also had earlier joined Sobieraski in Pennsylvania, along with other volunteers to crew for him throughout a day of running.

Anthony Mazurkiewicz, 54, is survived by Lynn, four children and three grandchildren.

“This past year has been nothing short of a nightmare for our family. As we have grieved, we have also drawn strength through the kindness the Greater Rochester community has shown us," the family of Mazurkiewicz said this week in a statement released through the police union, the Locust Club.

"We cannot begin to thank everyone enough," the statement said. "As we continue to grieve the loss of our husband, father and papa — please remember his name, remember his story and remember his life mattered. We also want to express our gratitude and continued support of Tony's brothers and sisters in Blue that protect and serve our community."

When fatally shot, Mazurkiewicz was on a detail in an undercover van with Officer Sino Seng, who also was shot. Seng, who survived, declined requests for interviews.

Kelvin Vickers Jr. is accused of the homicide and the shooting of Seng, as well as the shooting of a teenage girl who police say was hit by a bullet. Vickers is scheduled for trial this fall. He is from Boston and police allege he was recruited to help in the back-and-forth violence over the marijuana trade.

There were other homicides and shootings and arsons that police also connected to the turf war.

It's easy to be jaded because of the violence, Sobieraski said, but he said he always thought of himself as a "glass half full" person.

His runs through eight states, the decency he encountered, and the willingness of strangers to talk and remember the sacrifice of Mazurkiewicz changed him, Sobieraski said. He raised close to $105,000 for the family.

"There were people from eight states away that never met Tony but still honored him," he said. "The amount of evil out there is so small but unfortunately it gets the most attention. The amount of humanity out there there is incredible."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Anthony Mazurkiewicz remembered by Brett Sobieraski