ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — A criminal complaint filed Friday in Rochester shines light on a violent turf war that investigators say ultimately led to the fatal shooting of RPD Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz.

The bombshell affidavit links Officer Mazurkiewicz’s death with a fatal triple shooting, multiple drive-by shootings, an arson, and a slew of police raids at suspected drug houses throughout the city.

According to the affidavit, which can be read in full at the bottom of the page, the investigation began in earnest when agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives met with an informant and an RPD investigator over the summer. Investigators say the informant is someone who has collaborated with them on this case as well as others, and that information “has been independently corroborated to the best extent possible.”

The informant told investigators about a “feud” between Brandon Washington — who the affidavit claims is a member of the national gang, the Crips — and “R.S.,” who is a member of a rival national gang, the Bloods.

Washington, the informant said, called members of the Crips and other affiliated gangs to Rochester from other cities to lash out against R.S. and the local Bloods. Investigators link the resulting violence to local arson, multiple drive-by shootings, assaults, and murders, including the murder of Officer Mazurkiewicz.

According to the affidavit, the informant told investigators Washington ran drug houses in Rochester in the summer of 2022, selling marijuana from locations on St. Paul Street, Sixth Street, and Laser Street.

Police executed a search warrant at the St. Paul Street house on June 14. Investigators said a sign was posted on the front door advertising the different kinds of marijuana varieties available for purchase.

One person was inside the house, where investigators said they found 47 pounds of marijuana, much of it packaged for street-level sales. Business cards found nearby listed the address as the “House of Exotics” and advertised “25 Flavors Plus,” telling customers to “Ring Red Doorbell.”

Police raiding the drug house saw surveillance cameras posted at the door. They took the HD recordings stored on the camera, which, according to the affidavit, included footage of drug sales and of Washington outside.

On July 16, police investigating a fatal shooting in a backyard on Sixth Street found what they called a marijuana “menu” posted in a window, similar to the one found at the St. Paul Street drug house. They also found surveillance cameras and, according to the affidavit, an open window through which officers could see cash and marijuana packaged for sale.

Police raided the location hours after the shooting, finding more storage bins filled with prepackaged marijuana. Investigators said they ultimately found 20 pounds of marijuana, $10,000 in cash, a loaded handgun, and drug ledgers inside. They also found a “House of Exotics” sign in the kitchen and a doorbell attached to a window frame, similar to the St. Paul Street location.

According to the affidavit, police reviewing surveillance footage from the cameras on the Sixth Street house saw Brandon Washington leaving the location shortly before the fatal shooting. Washington arrived, on camera, with a man named Deadrick Fulwiley, who was carrying a duffel bag investigators later determined was full of firearms.

Officers were called to the Sixth Street house five days later, on July 21, for reports of shots fired. According to the affidavit, police on scene found gun casings in the road, bullet holes in the house, and “smoldering material” in the bushes. Investigators determined someone attempted to set the drug house on fire using Budweiser bottles full of flammable liquids, like Molotov cocktails.

Police once again entered the house, this time “fearing that an individual(s)… may have been struck by the expended bullet rounds.” Investigators said they found the house set up for marijuana distribution again, with more marijuana, cash, and ammunition in sight.

Upstairs, investigators allegedly found “an AR-type semi-automatic rifle” in a bathroom and an open black duffel bag with more weapons and ammunition inside. According to the affidavit, that is believed to be the bag Fulwiley brought into the home with Washington days earlier.

Police said Brandon Washington’s brother, Jermell Washington, was also found inside the Sixth Street home on July 21. He was arrested and “agreed to speak with investigators” at the RPD Public Safety Building.

According to the affidavit, Jermell Washington told police he’d been working at the Sixth Street house since May 2022, selling marijuana 11 hours a day, seven days a week, earning about $500 to $600 weekly in personal commission. He allegedly told police he regularly sold $2,500 of marijuana daily, sometimes bringing in $6,000 “on a good day.”

Jermell Washington did not identify anyone taking money from or bringing marijuana to the location, the affidavit states.

Police once again seized surveillance footage from the cameras on the Sixth Street house. That footage allegedly shows Brandon Washington returning to the location to re-open the drug house after the July 16 raid, and before the second search warrant on July 21.

According to the affidavit, investigators believed R.S.’s rival group was responsible for the apparent drive-by shooting and attempted arson at Sixth Street. On July 20, police were called to Brandon Washington’s Laser Street residence for reports of shots fired. They found 32 casings in the road and front yard, and multiple apparent bullet holes in the house. Fulwiley, police said, lived across the street.

Police were concerned about retaliation at that point, the affidavit claims, so members of the RPD Tactical Unit were assigned to perform “general surveillance” of the area on the night of July 21. Four officers watched the location from two unmarked police vehicles. Officers Anthony Mazurkiewicz and Sino Seng were among them, parked near the intersection of Bauman Street and Laser Street.

According to the affidavit, police saw a group of men on the front porch and in the yard of Fulwiley’s house. Fulwiley was there, as was a man later identified as Kelvin Vickers.

Investigators say Vickers left the porch at 9:15 p.m. on the night of July 21, crossed the street, then headed toward the van with the officers inside. The van was parked on Bauman Street, facing northbound. Vickers allegedly came out of a backyard, snuck up from behind the van, and fired 17 rounds at the officers inside.

Officer Mazurkiewicz and Officer Seng were both shot. Officer Mazurkiewicz was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital, but did not survive. Officer Seng was treated for three gunshot wounds at Rochester General Hospital.

A 15-year-old girl inside a nearby house was grazed by a bullet that passed through a wall.

Police said they found Vickers, “hiding shirtless and shoeless,” inside an abandoned house on Bauman Street that same night. They said the handgun used to kill Officer Mazurkiewicz and wound Officer Seng was also found in the house, wrapped in his sweatshirt.

According to the affidavit, Fulwiley was found when a concerned citizen told officers about a suspicious man sitting on a porch on nearby Hoff Street. Police had made note of his car on Laser Street earlier in the night, and it was still there when he was detained, stuck in the area closed for the crime scene investigation.

RPD and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office SWAT teams conducted a yard-to-yard search into the early hours after the shooting. They allegedly found multiple guns and boxes of ammunition “strewn about the rear lawns” of Washington and Fulwiley’s Laser Street houses. Search warrants carried out at the houses that morning uncovered four firearms in addition to the guns found in the backyards.

In an upstairs bedroom at Fulwiley’s house, investigators say they found more than 50 pounds of marijuana packaged for resale in a collection of boxes and garbage bags. The packaging, police say, was similar to the kind found at the St. Paul Street and Sixth Street drug houses.

According to the affidavit, investigators searching Washington’s home across the street found ammunition inside, along with hundreds of “street-level packages” of marijuana. Police say one plastic bag filled with vials of marijuana was labeled “6th Street.”

Fulwiley’s vehicle, which he was unable to recover during the police investigation, remained in the Laser Street driveway while police searched the homes. According to the affidavit, investigators looked into the vehicle’s DMV records and learned it had been bought on the afternoon of the shooting from an auto shop on Dewey Avenue.

Police went to the auto shop to find security footage from the days leading up to the fatal shooting of Officer Mazurkiewicz. According to the affidavit, they saw Washington, Fulwiley, and Vickers together during the sale. Police say Washington paid with $2,000 in cash, but Fulwiley was named as the legal purchaser.

Police looking into that sale learned Washington bought another vehicle from the same shop one week earlier. Security footage shows Washington and Fulwiley both at the shop when they bought the car, which was ultimately registered in another person’s name.

According to the affidavit, police used blue light camera footage and private citizen’s surveillance footage to determine the gray Dodge Caliber minivan Washington and Fulwiley bought on July 14 was used in a triple shooting on July 20. Two people were killed and a third injured in that shooting on North Clinton Avenue.

Police say the victims, Richard Collinge III and Myjel Rand, were known associates of R.S.

Three hours after the fatal July 20 shooting, the gray minivan was found “completely engulfed in flames” in the driveway of R.S.’s mother’s house. Washington’s house was struck by gunfire six hours later, bringing police to Laser Street. Investigators, fearing escalating retaliation, sent Officers Mazurkiewicz, Seng, and two others to Laser Street the following night, where Mazurkiewicz was killed and Seng was injured.

According to the affidavit, the keys to that minivan were found in Fulwiley’s bedroom during the search of his home.

Charges

Investigators say 18 people were arrested as a result of this investigation, 10 of whom face federal charges.

Vickers, Fulwiley, and a third man, Raheim Robinson have been charged with murder, attempted murder, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the North Clinton Avenue shooting, along with arson charges for the alleged burning of the vehicle.

Vickers was charged with aggravated murder, murder in the second degree, attempted aggravated murder, attempted murder in the second degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the shooting of Officer Mazurkiewicz, Officer Seng, and the teenage victim.

The affidavit filed Friday calls for Washington to be charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana; maintaining locations for the purpose of manufacturing, storing, and distributing marijuana; aiding and abetting; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and felon in possession of firearms and/or ammunition.

The affidavit also calls for charges of unlawful possession of a machinegun against Fulwiley.

Police say 22 firearms and nearly 140 pounds of marijuana were seized during the various searches taking place throughout the investigation.

Read the full affidavit

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