Saturday, March 27, 2010

New Britain, CT: Police Call Shooting Attempted Murder-Suicide

Neighborhood Evacuated After Shooting
POSTED: 11:15 am EDT March 26,2010
UPDATED: 7:18 pm EDT March 26,2010

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- One man is dead and two women remain hospitalized after being shot inside a home on Chestnut Street in New Britain on Thursday evening.
Police said they received a 911 call around 5:40 p.m. Thursday reporting a disturbance at the home. When officers arrived, they located three people who had been shot. Two women were removed from the home by police officers and were transported to a local hospital, and one man was dead inside the home.
Police said Friday it may have been a murder-suicide attempt.
Police said Nick Salza was found shot and killed inside the home on Thursday. Police said they also found Tobi Salza and her friend, Tiffany Sitaro, suffering from gunshot wounds as well. Police described Tobi's injury as a serious, life-threatening gunshot wound. She remains hospitalized.
Tobi is the ex-wife of Nick Salza, and the two had been married about 20 years.
Police said Sitaro's injury was not considered to be life-threatening, but she still remains hospitalized in guarded condition.
An autopsy that was conducted Friday determined that Nick died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Friends and family were visibly upset when told of the triple shooting. Many are concerned about the children who are left without a father.
Family friend Fran Merritt had no idea what happened when he went to the home on Thursday night. When he arrived at the home he saw the police and SWAT teams, then was told what happened.
Merritt said, "I found my goddaughter crying and she said her mother had been shot."
Now Merritt is worried about the ex-couple's four children. Three they had together, and one step-child. Merritt said Nick loved all of the children equally.
Merritt said, "He was a great friend. He loved the kids immensely."
Though the couple divorced almost a year ago, Merritt said the pair had some rough times but they were close.
Merritt said, "Yeah they argued. They always made up. So, yea they argued but it wasn't anything other than what it always was."
Merritt said he doesn't know how the shooting happened, but he said he just hopes the children can get through this. "I think it's going to be a long, hard road for them," Merritt said.
On Friday afternoon, Channel 3 Eyewitness News spoke with Sandra Gerber, who represented Nick in the couple's divorce last year. She said the couple agreed Nick would have custody of their three children.
Gerber said, "They were not a high-conflict couple. When there were issues that came up, that they disagreed on, we discussed them and they resolved them."
While Gerber and others describe Nick as a jovial, wisecracking person, people in the bail bonds industry, what Nick did for a living, said in the past few weeks, Nick had not been himself. They said he was distressed due to financial issues and that his ex-wife, whom he was still friends with, had met someone else.
In a recent Facebook posting, Tobi had said, "You think you own me? Ha! Not on your life. U don't like the fact that u can't control me anymore. Well get over it and move on baby."

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