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Virginia police officer shot dead a day after swearing in Army staff sergeant arrested in Virginia police officer's death
(about 5 hours later)
A police officer in Virginia was fatally shot a day after being sworn in and two of her colleagues were wounded while responding to a reported argument at a home. An army staff sergeant assigned to the Pentagon was arrested on murder and other charges in the death of a police officer and another person, authorities said Sunday.
A woman was also killed in the incident on Saturday in Woodbridge, about 30 miles south-west of Washington DC. A suspect, a military serviceman, is in custody and was not injured. Ronald Hamilton, 32, is being held without bond in the Prince William County adult detention center on charges that include murder of a law enforcement officer. He is accused of shooting and killing officer Ashley Guindon after she answered a domestic violence call at the Hamilton home Saturday evening. Two other officers were hospitalized with injuries.
Prince William county police department said on its Facebook page that officer Ashley Guindon had died from injuries sustained in the shooting. The suspect is an active duty army staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Staff support center at the Pentagon, according to Cindy Your, a defense information systems agency spokeswoman based at Fort Meade, Maryland.
The department had posted a picture of Guindon on its Twitter account on Friday in a tweet that read: “Welcome Officers Steven Kendall & Ashley Guindon who were sworn in today & begin their shifts this weekend. Be safe!” The death of Ashley Guindon was just the latest tragedy to strike the family. Her father, David, committed suicide the day after he returned home from Iraq, where he served with the New Hampshire air national guard. He was buried with full military honors on 26 August 2004.
“He came home and took his own life,” said Dorothy Guindon, Ashley’s grandmother.
Ashley was his only child.
Ashley was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. The family later moved to Merrimack, New Hampshire, according to her grandmother.
“This is really a shock to us,” Dorothy Guindon said. “Ashley was such a nice person.”
Officer Brandon Carpenter at the county’s adult detention center says Hamilton is being held without bond at the jail on charges that include murder of a law enforcement officer, first-degree murder, two counts of malicious assault and two counts of use of a firearm during a felony.
Hamilton is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.
Prince William County commonwealth’s attorney Paul Ebert told the Associated Press on Sunday morning that the gunman’s wife was the victim in the domestic incident. He did not provide her name.
The shooting occurred Saturday evening at Hamilton’s home in Woodbridge, where neighbors say he lived with his wife and their 10-year-old son.
Officers received a call around 5.30pm in Woodbridge, about 30 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, about a “verbal argument”, Perok said.
A picture of Guindon was posted to the department’s Twitter page on Friday with a tweet that read: “Welcome Officers Steven Kendall & Ashley Guindon who were sworn in today & begin their shifts this weekend. Be Safe!” It is not known if the other officer in the tweet was involved in the shooting incident.
Welcome Officers Steven Kendall & Ashley Guindon who were sworn in today & begin their shifts this weekend.Be safe! pic.twitter.com/92c2YLjcQxWelcome Officers Steven Kendall & Ashley Guindon who were sworn in today & begin their shifts this weekend.Be safe! pic.twitter.com/92c2YLjcQx
It is not known whether the other officer in the tweet was involved in the shooting incident. The condition of the two injured officers was not known. Guindon had been a county police officer a few years ago and had left and returned to the force, Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County board of supervisors, said in a phone interview with the Associated Press on Saturday night. He did not know the exact dates on which she started and left, he said.
Guindon had been a county police officer a few years ago and had left and returned to the force, said Corey Stewart, chair of the Prince William county board of supervisors. Stewart also said that during the incident, there was a child in the house, who was not harmed.
He said a woman was dead at the scene of the incident before police arrived, but officials declined to confirm that information. Stewart also said there was a child in the house who was not harmed. At Inova Fairfax hospital, where the three officers were flown by helicopter after the shooting, more than 100 patrol cars lined the roads outside early Sunday morning to stand vigil and escort Guindon’s body to the medical examiner.
Prince William county commonwealth attorney Paul Ebert said he had authorised a capital murder charge, along with other counts, against the suspect, who has not been identified. The shooting occurred in the Lake Ridge neighborhood, on a curving street with $500,000 suburban houses with brick and siding exteriors, manicured lawns and two-car garages about a five-minute drive from the county office building.
At Inova Fairfax hospital, where the three officers were flown by helicopter after the shooting, more than 100 patrol cars lined the roads outside early on Sunday morning to stand vigil and escort Guindon’s body to the medical examiner.