Slain Cleveland officer's father survived 2012 Christmas Eve ambush in upstate NY

A Webster native and Cleveland police officer shot and killed in the line of duty Thursday morning was the son of a man who survived one of the Rochester region's darkest days in recent memory.

Officer Jamieson Ritter, 27, was shot about 1 a.m. on Thursday as officers attempted to serve a warrant to Delawnte Hardy, 24. Hardy was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the killing.

Who was Jamieson Ritter?

Jamieson Ritter, a Webster native, was a 2015 graduate of McQuaid Jesuit High School and a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard and served with the 134th Field Artillery Regiment as a member of the Ohio Army National Guard.

Jamieson Ritter joined the Cleveland Division of Police in November 2020, he was deployed to Syria in 2022 with his unit and then returned to his job as a Cleveland police officer in 2023, according to Greece police.

Ritter was raised "with profound desire to serve his country and his community," according to a news release from Cleveland Division of Police. His family confirmed that “from an early age, Jamieson possessed an innate understanding of selfless service to the nation and a strong desire to serve his community.”

Who is Jon Ritter?

Jamieson's Ritter father, Jon Ritter, was a Greece police officer for three decades before he retired in 2013.

On Christmas Eve 2012, Jon Ritter was off-duty and was driving to work when he drove into the "kill zone" on Lake Road where a gunman who had lit his house on fire ambushed four West Webster firefighters, killing two. Jon Ritter was lauded for preventing others from entering the neighborhood during the chaos of those early morning hours.

Ritter in 2012, said that he never saw the shooting, but had rounded the curve a heard a "popping" sound, which he assumed was gunfire.

A bullet pierced his windshield and Ritter, unarmed at the time, backed his truck up to the nearest intersection in order to block the road and prevent others from moving into danger.

He suffered a fragment blast to his arm and was briefly hospitalized

What happened on Lake Road in Webster NY on Christmas Eve in 2012?

The shooting unfolded in the early morning hours of Dec. 24, 2012, as volunteers from the West Webster fire department responded to the report of a fire on Lake Road.

Michael Chiapperini, 43, and Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, were shot as they stepped out of their fire truck. Both men died at the scene.

Two others, Joseph Hostetter and Ted Scardino, were seriously injured, but survived. Greece police Officer Jon Ritter, who was driving behind them on his way to work, was struck by debris after gunshots targeted his car.

Firefighters from across the region watched helplessly while the fires burned unchecked for hours, as they waited for police to find the shooter and bring the attack to an end.

Investigators later determined that 62-year-old William Spengler had set his house and vehicle ablaze and waited to ambush emergency responders. Spengler’s 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, was also killed. Spengler eventually took his own life not far from where the shooting began.

Investigators concluded that Dawn Nguyen, a former neighbor of Spengler's, bought a shotgun and assault rifle for him at a Gander Mountain store in Henrietta. Spengler was barred from doing so as a convicted felon. He had previously been imprisoned for killing his grandmother.

Nguyen was convicted in both state and federal courts for her purchase of the guns and served her state and federal sentences, both eight years, which ran concurrently. She was released from federal custody in 2021.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Jamieson Ritter's father survived 2012 Christmas Eve ambush in NY