City loses a hero

OUR OPINION
Published: June 12, 2008

Many law enforcement personnel have been sworn in for duty over the years, but what must they think when they step out each day or night on the job? Maybe they wonder if the day’s work will end in danger, or if it could end up being their last. Maybe they go out and simply do their jobs, not thinking much about the tragedies that could happen each day. Or, is it a little of both?

Perhaps the danger often crosses their minds, when relatives worry, during milestones when children are born into their lives — when they feel more vulnerable and less invincible — or when they simply are faced with a case that could put them in harm’s way.

Todd Bahr, a 40-year-old officer with the Fredericksburg Police Department, lost his life last week in the line of duty while pursuing a suspect.

For the Fredericksburg Police Department, it’s been 44 years since the department has had an officer killed in the line of duty. For Bahr’s family and friends, and for Chief David Nye and the department, all of whom have become his family, the devastation of losing him is surely crushing. A hero to them and to those he protected, Bahr will be laid to rest locally at Sunset Memorial Gardens following a funeral at Spotswood Baptist Church.

He was a longtime resident of Stafford, having grown up in the county, and graduated from Stafford High School in 1986. Bahr served with the Fredericksburg Police Department for two years and previously served as an auxiliary officer.

On the night of June 6, he responded to a call, as other officers did, that involved an earlier domestic situation in which a man was reportedly threatening his ex-girlfriend and was armed with a gun. After Bahr and other officers had searched on foot for a suspect, the suspect opened fire and ultimately shot Bahr, fatally. 
The suspect, identified as Gregory Berryman, 47, whose last known address was in Stafford, also shot and killed himself. It was later learned that Berryman had been arrested by the Fredericksburg Police on multiple charges in the past and was later convicted of brandishing a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. He served six months in Rappahannock Regional Jail and had been released in March.

Now, Bahr’s family and friends are preparing to say goodbye — a goodbye they didn’t want to prepare for, a goodbye they hoped would never come. Like other officers killed in the line of duty, Bahr is listed on the Internet’s The Officer Down Memorial Page. There, people who knew Bahr, and even people who don’t, are free to leave comments called “Reflections” and read others left there for Bahr as a memorial.

In memoriam: Todd Allen Bahr — for family, friends and coworkers:
Your Loved One Lives In Your Heart
Many tender memories soften your grief,
May fond recollection bring you relief,
And may you find comfort and peace in the thought
Of the joy that knowing your loved one brought…
For time and space can never divide
Or keep your loved one from your side
When memory paints in colors true
The happy hours that
belonged to you.
— Poem by Helen Steiner Rice