I don't think we appreciate the danger our Police Officers place themselves in every day to protect us.
Many police officers have been gunned down already this year, but this one is a glaring example of the dangers they face. Ashley Guindon was murdered in her first day on the job after completing her service in the United States Marine Corps.
The irony is that she was probably in much more danger during her military deployments , but she came back home to continue her public service and was murdered in an affluent suburb of $500,000 homes during a reported domestic disturbance.
Please keep our first responders in your thoughts and prayers and also remember those officers in Virginia and across the country that have been wounded and are recovering from shootings
. There is also a local aspect to this killing. The West Springfield Massachusetts Police are with heavy hearts today after learning of the fatal shooting of Police Officer Ashley Guindon on her first night of duty. Ashley is the niece of West Springfield Police Detective Thomas Guindon.
..WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) — A Virginia police officer was shot and killed Saturday on her first day back with her department after being sworn in, and two of her colleagues were wounded in a confrontation stemming from a call about an argument.
A county leader said a civilian woman was also killed in the domestic dispute.
Officers received a call around 5:30 Saturday evening in Woodbridge, about 30 miles southwest of the nation's capital, about a "verbal argument," Sgt. Jonathan Perok, spokesman of the Prince William County Police Department, said. It's not clear how the altercation between the suspect and police began but the suspect, a military serviceman, is in custody and was not injured, he said. The condition of the other two officers is not known.
The department announced on its Facebook page that Officer Ashley Guindon had died from the injuries she sustained in the shooting.
A picture of Guindon was posted to the department's Twitter page on Friday with a tweet that read, "Welcome Officers Steven Kendall & Ashley Guindon who were sworn in today & begin their shifts this weekend. Be Safe!" It is not known if the other officer in the tweet was involved in the shooting incident.
Guindon had been a county police officer a few years ago and had left and returned to the force, Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press Saturday night. He did not know the exact dates of when she started and left, he said.
Another woman was killed in the domestic call and was dead before police arrived, Stewart said, but police declined to confirm that information. Stewart also said there was a child in the house during the incident who was not harmed.
Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert told The Associated Press Saturday night that he has authorized a capital murder charge, along with other counts, against the suspect, who has not been identified.
At Inova Fairfax Hospital, where the three officers were flown by helicopter after the shooting, more than 100 patrol cars lined the roads outside early Sunday morning to stand vigil and escort Guindon's body to the medical examiner.
The shooting occurred in the Lake Ridge neighborhood, on a curving street with $500,000 suburban houses with brick and siding exteriors, manicured lawns and two-car garages about a five-minute drive from the county office building.
Until Saturday evening, the big news in the police department was the planned retirement of Chief Steve Hudson, who announced two weeks ago that he will step down at the end of March, and officers' plans to do a "polar bear" plunge on Saturday morning to raise money for Special Olympics.
Police said the incident is still being investigated.
The West Springfield Police are with heavy hearts today after learning of the fatal shooting of Ashley Guindon on her first night of duty. Ashley is the niece of West Springfield Police Detective Thomas Guindon.
11 comments:
I don't think we appreciate the danger our Police Officers place themselves in every day to protect us.
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Amen to that.
It might help if we were to have Executives in, for example, Hartford, Baltimore, and D.C. who stand behind the cops, promote law and order, and support the general welfare rather than forever find victims of social injustice, police brutality and racial discrimination.
God bless Ashley Guindon and her family.
In partial answer to Peter Brush, first, my heart felt sympathies to the family, friend and colleagues of this slain officer. So so tragic.
I have been an activist in support of sense able gun laws and I have approached a few chiefs and officers about the need for law enforcement, in whatever position, union or administration, to stand beside Newtown Alliance, The Brady Foundation and so many other organizations, and help push for sensible gun legislation. I was told that even in CT, most chiefs in the small towns are not in favor of going against any policy of the NRA and CT Sportsmen.
I find this reaction to be incredably naive since stronger laws will inevitably serve the safety of all including law enforcement. If law enforcement stood beside those of us lobbying for sensible gun laws, we would be a force strong enough to win legislation in Congress over the objections of the NRA whose only goal is to protect the blood profit interests of the gun industry. Instead, we are met with silence. Police officers themselves seem not to have any interest in such laws. Yet, they continue to loose their own as a direct result of easy access to legal and stolen weapons.
I don't understand this. So I will once again, make this Clarion call to all in law enforcement; join with those of us lobbying for sensible gun laws and in the end, your brother and sister officers will have an increased chance of survival.
Anonymous 9:45 am. I have to disagree with you!! Stricter gun laws will only affect the law abiding citizen. Criminals do not abide by the rules. If stricter laws areally made and enforced then we might start to see a change. Lobby for that and I'm sure you will get support from law enforcement. BTW I'm now a police officer. Just a citizen who is tired of seeing us good people punished for what the criminals ate doing. Yes there are few instances where some decent people go rogue. But for the most part as you know it's the criminal element. Just look at some of the post Mr. Btook man has put here to include criminal history of some guts that were recently arrested with high powered rifles. When is enough, enough. Push for stricter laws for the criminal.
9:45am
I understand your sentiment, but the gun violence we face everyday in our City is not at the hands of law abiding people that will pay attention to every law that is put on the books by "feel good legislation". All more gun laws are doing is keeping honest people honest.People who actually obey the law and really do fear the consequences of breaking the law. How many people charged with gun crimes on the streets are law abiding citizens in compliance with applicable laws. How many people charged with carrying these weapons do you think have gun permits? I would say very few if any. But how many of them are convicted felons clearly ignoring the laws in possession of a firearm. All the gun laws we pass mean nothing if they are not enforced with stiff penalties for violating them, as opposed to the typical slap on the wrist we see now. Again, I understand your sentiment, but even Newtown probably might not have happened if a mother wasn't supplying firearms to her mentally ill son, and she knew he was mentally ill
Kevin, respectfully, I ask you, if up to 65% of crimes committed with guns in CT were stolen from legit sources, then where does the problem originate? Curing this uniquely American yahoo problem is not a sprint to the finish line. And when I derisively use "yahoo," I do so because this country is the only developed one on earth that is so gun crazy. And when I speak of a cure, I am thinking 50 or beyond our lifetimes. My sense is that we remain so gun crazy is because we are the most aggressive war-prone nation on earth. And when soldiers return from the battles, the thing they want to continue experiencing (from they days of glory) is their relationship with the gun. This point is very arguable don't dismiss it.
Gun-related deaths are the highest in the world here. Do you want to explain how the excessive rate is not related to the easy access to firearms? And let's not argue the 2nd. It can be argued both ways. Those who mistakenly argue that the right to bear arms will not be infringed upon suddenly have a lapse of English language understanding when they reach the term, "a well regulated militia" pops up.
And I don't think you have read me call for an absence of guns. But the responsibility must fall on the gun owner. Owning a firearm has immense responsibilities. Keeping it from thief must be incumbent on the owner which is why I call for mandatory insurance. The statistics of home ownership of guns shows that rarely does it ever result stoping someone busting into a house because guess what, homes are hardly ever home invaded unless you are a junkie and owe the dealer. Conversely, accidental home gun deaths is very high.
So we are all affected by the proliferation of firearms in this society. My last point may weaken my argument, but for the police officer who commented and who wants all the good guys to be well armed against all the bad guys, when one of your own gets gun down, try rethinking your wild-west mentality of gun ownership.
Guns are not the issue. God bless the cops.
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An ax-wielding man reportedly attacked a police officer in Washington, D.C., as he sat in his police cruiser early Friday morning. The incident comes just one week after a Muslim man brutally attacked officers in New York City with a hatchet in what officials described as a “terrorist attack.”
The seemingly unprovoked attack in D.C. occurred at around 3 a.m. near the Catholic University of America campus, according to police. A shocking photo later emerged of the ax embedded in the police car’s window, right in the area where the officer’s head would have been.
Oct. 31, 2014 3:41pm
Hmmm...the article states the killer was a military serviceman. Which means he would have to have been a law abiding citizen at some point, no? Since 2000, there has been one foreign terrorist attack in the U.S., but literally hundreds of domestic terrorist attacks in the same time span, most involving guns. The arguments of the gun-folk are
Getting pretty weak. Might be time to find your manhood somewhere else than your hand.
Kevin, I guess you feel insecure with well-reasoned views opposing your own views because I followed up on the gun issues offering very valid and most importantly, respectful points on the issues of reasonable legislation and why they may be good for society. But you deleted them. Himmmm. Really?
I didn't delete anything, maybe you should make sure you did it correctly
As an only child, she moved to New Hampshire with her mom and dad. but she always kept close ties to the area. Her grandmother, aunt, uncles, and cousins all live in West Springfield - including one uncle who's a detective with the West Springfield Police Department.
"This is what police officers do each and every day, so that you can go about your business and make that call and know somebody is going to respond," Campurciani added.
Campurciani said that his department couldn't believe the news that Ashley and two other officers were gunned-down while responding to domestic violence call.
The suspect, Ronald Hamilton, is also believed to have killed his wife after getting into a physical altercation.
"They're very, very volatile situations and we probably handle these the most, but they're also the most dangerous," Campurciani said.
Officer Guindon's body will be flown into Bradley International Airport this week. Family members said that she will be buried next to her father at St. Thomas Cemetery in West Springfield.
Read more: http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/31345136/officer-killed-in-va-has-strong-ties-to-western-ma#ixzz41gEtYi3q
Thank you Peter for that info. We should all be lining the highway as she heads home to West Springfield
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