A 38-year-old Connecticut man planning to shoot up a nursing home and commit “suicide by cop” is facing charges including attempted assault on police officers and criminal use of a weapon.
James Zigadlo, of Ashford, is being held on $500,000 bond for seeking “revenge” against workers at Davis Place in Danielson, where he felt his mother was mistreated prior to her death in April 2022, Connecticut State Police said Wednesday.
Davis admitted he didn’t know anyone at the elderly center and hadn’t visited his mom there.
Police first apprehended Zigadlo in June 2023 when a Davis Place employee reported a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot around 1 a.m. When officers approached the car, the suspect allegedly led officers on multiple pursuits before his yellow Nissan was spotted in Plainfield hours later.
Around that same time, firefighters responded to a call about a blaze at Zigadlo’s apartment, which the suspect is believed to have started himself.
Cops said they looked inside the Nissan and discovered an empty .243 Winchester rifle box. After authorities confirmed neither that firearm nor a shotgun registered to Zigadlo were in his burned apartment, they worried the suspect could be dangerous to himself and others.
Police located Zigadlo hiding behind a tree after a bus driver reported seeing a man fitting the suspect’s description by the side of a road.
Zigadlo allegedly confessed that he intended to commit a mass shooting at Davis Place and had spent a couple hours outside the building wrestling with his conscience. He also said he intended to die by pointing his guns at police so that they’d kill him.
“To be fair, I was not planning on shooting,” he reportedly assured officers. “I was just going to point so you guys would shoot me.”
Zigadlo was armed with 36 rifle cartridges and as many as 100 shotgun shells, according to police. He also had toilet paper in preparation for a “long engagement” once he began opening fire inside the nursing home.
Zigadlo was arrested again on July 19 in connection with the guns he allegedly planned to use in his showdown with police. Authorities said the suspect had “remained in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Correction” since his first arrest last June.
