Veteran Norwich officer set to retire from force and head to Killingly

Jonathan Ley was shot four times during 2013 standoff that helped community come together

Norwich — Police Lt. Jonathan Ley, a veteran officer who was sidelined for eight months in 2013 after a despondent man shot him, will retire next month and head for the Killingly Police Department, police confirmed this week.

Ley, a 43-year-old currently serving as a daytime shift commander, declined to be interviewed for this story, citing a desire to focus on his family and his transition to Killingly.

“I leave the department in good hands and on good terms,” he said via email. “It has been an honor working with all the past and present members of this department and the city.”

Regarding the shooting, he said the following: “From my heart, I appreciate all of the support my family and I received from the Norwich community, following getting shot in 2013. I would not be in the position I am in now without all of that support.”

It was Jan. 7, 2013, when police were called to the Cedar Glen Apartments on Cedar Street. A man had called a suicide hotline and said he planned to die by “suicide by cop.”

Police responded to the call in force. When officers denied the man’s request for a clear path out of his apartment, he began shooting through his window.

Bullets hit Ley in the neck, left shoulder, left hand and right leg. Some also hit Ley’s body armor. Amid the chaos, two officers helped him hobble to a waiting ambulance.

As Ley spent time in the hospital, at first listed in critical condition, members of the community banded together. Fire companies placed signs of support outside their stations. Upon his release, a police escort longer than a parade brought him home. The Connecticut Tigers minor league baseball team hosted a benefit in his honor. And officers struggled to come to grips with the shooting of a fellow officer, the first such shooting in decades.

“I’m going to have lasting injuries, but nothing that is going to keep me from working,” Ley said in Septem-

“I leave the department in good hands and on good terms. It has been an honor working with all the past and present members of this department and the city.” NORWICH POLICE LT. JONATHAN LEY, VIA EMAIL

ber 2013. “I had mental battles as well as physical ones to overcome. The mental side I'll be dealing with for a long time.”

Ley, a Norwich Free Academy graduate, served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1992 to 1996 and remained a reservist afterward.

Hired in 1998, he has acted as a recruiter, an instructor and a detective with the Norwich force. Over the years, he has supervised the training, marine and bicycle units. Formerly an evening shift supervisor, he now works on the day shift.

Ley will join the Killingly department at a time when it is transitioning away from the resident state trooper program. According to the Norwich Bulletin, Ley would become the town's third licensed constable, enabling it to fund one less resident trooper come July.

Ley has selected March 14 as his final day in Norwich.