Mother of Slain Virginia Officer Tells Cop Killer: "You Killed Me, Too"
“Ronald Hamilton, you not only killed my daughter,” said Sharon Guindon, addressing the former Pentagon information technology specialist. “You killed me, too.”
Officer Ashley Guindon was shot and killed on her first day on the job. She was assisting other officers on a domestic violence call. (Photo: Prince William County PD)
The mother of slain Prince William County, VA, police officer Ashley Guindon looked straight at her murderer Tuesday in a county courtroom as she described the pain he’d inflicted.
“Ronald Hamilton, you not only killed my daughter,” said Sharon Guindon, addressing the former Pentagon information technology specialist. “You killed me, too,” the Washington Post reports.
Hamilton was convicted of capital murder last month in the 2016 fatal shooting of his wife and rookie officer Ashley Guindon, who had been on her first day on the beat.
Sharon Guindon had largely kept quiet since her only child — just 28 years old — became the first Prince William officer killed in the line of duty since 1990. But as a jury weighs whether to give a death sentence, she swiveled in the witness stand to face the murderer and declared: “Ronald Hamilton, you took the one person that meant the world to me. I have an emptiness that will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Hamilton, 34, who was an Army staff sergeant, covered his face with his hands as she spoke. He shot his wife, Crystal Hamilton, at their Woodbridge, Va., home during an argument the night of Feb. 27, 2016. When police arrived, Hamilton fired at three officers, wounding two and killing Ashley Guindon, a former Marine reservist who had been sworn in as a Prince William officer only the day before.
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