PD: Norwich standoff shooter took his own life

NORWICH, Conn. (WTNH) -- A man who shot a Norwich police officer several times during a standoff Monday has taken his own life, police said.

38-year-old Jonathan Ley, a 14 year veteran of the Norwich Police department continues to recover at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He has now been upgraded to fair condition and is talking.

Fellow officers and loved ones have been with him around the clock.

The standoff started at 2:30 Monday afternoon at Cedar Glen Apartments, 99 Cedar Street, where the gunman, 30-year-old Jason Razzino, said he wanted to die by what's called "suicide by cop."

Police found Razzino deceased in the bathroom, suffering from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.

While some residents have been able to return home, the family living next door is kept out, recalling the scary scene before they were safely evacuated.

"We heard about 30 shots, pow pow pow really fast," said Amanda Norman. "Then we heard officer down, we need more guns. Then we heard about seven more pops and then it stopped."

"I'm way relieved," said Taha Norman.

Taha Norman says she owes her life to Ley and to other officers. She lives next to 30-year-old Razzino and suffered a seizure after seeing Ley injured in the hallway Monday night.

"John is like the rest of the people here. They are like my sons and daughters and this is one of those things that is really difficult to deal with," said Chief Louis Fusaro of the Norwich Police.

"Once I seen that cop and they said the cop was down, we need more guns, I went out of there, I started crying and then next minute you know I'm in Backus Hospital in a bed," said Taha Norman. "It feels like he was something to me, I mean they did a lot for me. They carried me out in shields and stuff to get me out of there. They had guns all around so that nobody would hurt me."

News 8 first met Ley at a job fair this summer. A certified bike technician and veteran of the Coast Guard, the father of a 2-year-old son also did recruiting for the department.

"He's got a great personality. He's a character and he's a pleasure to be around, which works out very well for recruitment," said Chief Fusaro. "He's very outgoing and has a lot of friends and family."

This is being felt outside of the department. Down the street from police is Voc's Westside Pizza where officers come in for a slice nearly every day.

"I've never met a more generous and kind, honest guy to come in. Even just getting orders for pizza, you can tell he's a good guy," said Anne Wojtcuk a worker at the pizza shop.

She says he often comes in with his 2-year-old son.

"He's the greatest little kid out there and he's adorable and for anything to happen to a guy like that, is really hard," said Wojtcuk.

As for the gunman, neighbors say Razzino was a father of a 3-year-old son with another child on the way and they never saw this coming.

"They were friendly. I mean you always heard them with their kid playing, singing when you walked by. I didn't think anything like that would ever happen," said Amanda Norman.