She briefly served as a county police officer a year ago but left for personal reasons during training, Hudson said.
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WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) – On her first day on the job, Officer Ashley Guindon responded to a call that could have become routine: a domestic disturbance in a well-kept suburban neighborhood.
The other two officers, identified as David McKeown, 33, and Jesse Hempen, 31, remain hospitalised.
The flag outside the Merrimack Police Department was lowered to half-mast in remembrance of Guindon. Police allege Guindon was killed and two other officers seriously injured when Ronald Williams Hamilton, 32, opened fire on them. Now, other officers will come together and celebrate her life and honor her sacrifice, but the post says that it will not be enough.
One day after rejoining the police force, an officer with connections to MA and New Hampshire was shot to death in northern Virginia. According to Cindy Your, Defense Information Systems Agency spokeswoman out of Fort Meade, Maryland, Hamilton is a staff sergeant with the U.S. Army, now assigned to the Pentagon’s Joint Staff Support Center. Prosecutors are still determining whether to seek the death penalty.
Just Friday, the department tweeted a photo of Officer Guindon and another fellow new officer, right after they were sworn in. Efforts to save Guindon, 28, failed and she died as the result of the injuries she sustained during the shootout. Ronald Hamilton, of Woodbridge, is being held without bond on charges including capital murder. He also faces a murder charge in the shooting death of his wife, Crystal Hamilton, 29. Another appearance in General District Court on charges related to the slaying of Officer Ashley Guindon is set for later in the morning. But all three officers were shot. When they entered the home, however, cops found Hamilton’s wife, Crystal Hamilton, shot dead.
He is also accused of killing his wife.
The couple’s 11-year-old son was physically unharmed during the incident, but he was visibly traumatized, according to 18-year-old neighbor Zacarius Harris. He appeared via video from the county jail, an orange jumpsuit covering his 6-foot-2, 260-pound frame.
Hamilton said little, except to request a court-appointed attorney. The judges in both hearings appointed Ed Ungvarsky, the state’s capital public defender, to represent Hamilton.
Hamilton is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning. “I’m sure they already know”, said Johnson.
“This is really a shock to us”, Dorothy Guindon said. “It’s taken a toll on everyone”.
“It leaves a hole in everyone’s heart and the fact that this was an individual of our community, makes it all the more hard for us to reconcile”, Merrimack Police Department Chief Mark Doyle said Sunday.
Ebert declined to discuss details of the case.
Another resident who spoke with reporters noted how she walks by the house every day and by all accounts the Hamiltons seemed like a happy family.
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Ungvarsky declined comment to reporters after the hearing.
