Family, friends and law enforcement officers gathered Tuesday to remember a Virginia police officer who was shot and killed on her first day on the job.
Thousands of people, including officers from around the region, attended funeral services for Prince William County Officer Ashley Guindon on Tuesday at Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, News4's Julie Carey reports.
Guindon's mother was held in the embrace of two Prince William County officers as she entered the chapel, followed by other family members.
During the service, Guindon, 28, was remembered as a loving daughter and a highly intelligent young woman driven to pursue a career of service.
"She had accomplished more in 28 years than I think I could in a hundred. That was her desire to serve, to be involved in things that mattered, to give her life to something worth giving it to," Prince William County Police Chief Steve Hudson said during the service.
Guindon was one of three officers shot Saturday while responding to a domestic violence call. The other two officers are expected to survive.
The suspect, Ronald Hamilton, is jailed facing a capital murder charge and other counts.
Hamilton's wife, 29-year-old Crystal Hamilton, was shot and killed Saturday before police arrived.
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The suspect's 11-year-old son escaped the gunfire, police said.
"[Ashley Guindon] had a willingness for the 11-year-old boy in that home, a willingness to give her life for that child," Prince William County Police Chaplain Danny Glusko said.
Police services in Prince William County were not disrupted Tuesday while officers attended Guindon's funeral. Members of the Manassas City Police Department, Prince William County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police assisted.
The two officers injured after being shot, Jesse Hempen and David McKeown, were not able to attend the services, police said.
Guindon went through training with the department last year before leaving for personal reasons. She rejoined the department this year and had been sworn in as an officer on Friday. She was on her first shift Saturday when she was shot.
"We were struck by her passion to do this job," Hudson said. "She did share with us when we rehired her that she felt like she wanted to do this job. She couldn't get it out of her blood."
Guindon, a Woodbridge resident who previously lived in Merrimack, New Hampshire, enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She relocated to Virginia to pursue a graduate degree and sought to become a crime scene investigator, Prince William County police said in an online biography.
She was the only daughter of Sharon Nowack Guindon and the late David Guindon, police said.
Guindon's body will be flown to Massachusetts where she will be buried with military honors.
