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Officer Down: Officer Todd Bahr

Age: 40

Cause of Death: Gunfire

Officer Todd Bahr was shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call at approximately 11:05 pm. He and several other officers were on foot searching for the male subject when he was shot.

Nearby officers heard the shots and located the suspect, who then opened fire on them. The officers returned fire, wounding the suspect. The man then shot and killed himself before officers were able to take him into custody.

Officer Bahr's body was located approximately 15 minutes later.

Officer Bahr had served with the Fredericksburg Police Department for 2 years and had previously served as an auxiliary officer.

Va. police officer killed in shootout
The Associated Press

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — A Fredericksburg police officer was shot dead searching for a gunman late Friday.

It happened about 11 p.m. in the 2500 block of Manor Court at Belmont apartments, police said. The suspected gunman was also killed in the shootout with officers, police said.

Todd Allen Bahr, 40, an officer with the Fredericksburg Police Department since 2006, died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Police said the man killed was Gregory Berryman, 47, whose last known address was in Stafford.

City police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said Bahr was killed in one confrontation between the gunman and police. Berryman later was shot several times during a confrontation with other officers in an apartment complex parking lot near the police station.

Police said that after being shot, Berryman put his own gun to his head and fired.

Bledsoe said the trouble started about 8:30 p.m. when Berryman's former girlfriend called police and reported he had threatened her over the phone. Police advised her to seek a protective order.

Bledsoe said a protective order was denied, but she didn't know why.

At 10:50 p.m., the woman called police again and said Berryman was brandishing a handgun outside her home. Berryman apparently knew police had been called and drove away, Bledsoe said. He was spotted minutes later by an officer who followed him to the apartment complex, where Bledsoe got out of his pickup truck and ran.

Bahr was one of several officers who were on foot looking for the suspect, Bledsoe said. At 11:05 p.m., officers heard shots fired. Police believe that is when Bahr was shot.

Officers closed in on Berryman in the parking lot, and more shots were fired. Berryman was dead by 11:09 p.m.

Bahr had been a member of the city police force for two years, Bledsoe said. Before that he was a gunshop owner who volunteered with the police auxiliary.

"The men and women of the Fredericksburg Police Department are shocked and saddened by the loss of Officer Bahr," Chief David Nye said. "This is a very tight knit department and we will never forget him. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

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