Army sergeant charged with killing cop on her first day of patrol

Sgt. Ronald Hamilton, 32, faced two counts of murder, two counts of assault, and weapons offenses after the shooting spree Saturday that also left two other officers wounded.

Thirty-two-year-old Ronald Hamilton, of Woodbridge, is charged with capital murder in Guindon’s death. Ed Ungvarsky, the state’s capital public defender, was appointed to represent Hamilton. He’s being held at a county jail without bond, and Paul Ebert, the Prince William County prosecutor, has indicated he’s considering the death penalty.

Hudson said police were still investigating whether Hamilton shot from inside or outside the home and the position of the officers when they were struck by bullets.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the Washington region turned out Tuesday to pay respects to slain Prince William County police officer Ashley Guindon, who was shot and killed just one day after she was sworn in.

Hamilton 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.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ashley Guindon’s first full day on the job as a cop was also her last. The other two officers are expected to survive.

A woman who told FOX 5 she is a friend of Crystal Hamilton was in the courtroom for the hearing, sobbing at times.

In a two mile long funeral procession, scores of Prince William County police officers escorted their fallen officer’s body, Monday night, from the Mountcastle Turch Funeral Home to the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge.

“To do such a thing when other kids might have said ‘enough is enough, ‘ reminds us as a school that we must go forward as well”, Johnson said on Monday.

Ebert said officers recovered two guns from the scene, a high-powered rifle and a.45-caliber handgun.

Ashley was his only child.

There have been several GoFundMe pages requesting money for Guidon’s family and funeral, but Sergeant Perok of the Prince William County Police Department can not confirm that these are legitimate. She graduated in June 2015 from the police academy, but resigned during officer field training for personal reasons.

Guindon was a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where she earned a degree in aeronautics. She rejoined the department this year and was sworn in on Friday, which the department marked with a celebratory tweet. Guindon’s father committed suicide following a tour of duty in Iraq with the Air National Guard.

“This is really a shock to us”, Dorothy Guindon said.

But it was in a quiet suburb in Northern Virginia on a domestic disturbance call that she met her own death.

Area residents say there were kids playing outside in the neighborhood when the shooting occurred. She had previously served in the Marine Corps Reserve and had family in law enforcement, according to the department.