Rookie Police Officer Shot Dead On First Day Of The Job, Two Other Officers Injured

The eerie and haunting tweet seen above welcoming two new officers and telling them to “Be safe” was sent out only one day before Prince William County Officer Ashley Guindon was shot to death. The 29-year-old was sworn into service on Friday, and on Saturday night she was killed in the line of duty on her very first day on the job.

Guindon and two fellow officers were investigating a domestic incident at around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in Woodbridge, a town in Virginia 30 miles south of Washington D.C., police said. Before the police arrived, an unnamed woman was also found dead in the home as well as a child, who was unharmed.

The murderer is Ronald Hamilton, who is an active duty Army staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Staff Support Center at the Pentagon. The 32-year-old is being held without bond in the Prince William County Adult Detention Center on charges that include murder of a law enforcement officer, first-degree murder charge, two counts of malicious assault and two counts of use of a firearm during a felony. Hamilton is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday morning.

Two other officers were hospitalized with injuries, but their condition has not been released.

Guindon graduated from the county’s police academy in June 2015 after obtaining a degree in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She was also a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve service member.

Thank you for your service Officer Ashley Guindon, and rest in peace.