On a late spring evening in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the life of 40-year-old Officer Todd Allen Bahr was tragically cut short. On June 6, 2008, while on duty with the Fredericksburg Police Department, Bahr responded to a domestic disturbance call that would ultimately place him in the path of a gunman. The call concerned threatening phone calls made by a man to his former girlfriend.
Officers had initially been dispatched to the woman's apartment in the 2300 block of Cowan Boulevard earlier in the evening. They returned around 10:50 p.m. after a report that the suspect was outside her apartment, brandishing a handgun. Upon their arrival, the suspect fled on foot into the apartment complex.
While searching for the armed man in the 2500 block of Manor Court, Officer Bahr was fatally shot in the head. Moments after shots were reported, other officers encountered the suspect, Gregory Berryman, in a nearby parking area. An exchange of gunfire ensued between Berryman and a Fredericksburg Police officer and two Fredericksburg Sheriff's deputies.
Following the shootout, Berryman was found to have sustained multiple gunshot wounds from the officers' return fire before he ultimately took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Officer Bahr was discovered fatally wounded shortly after the confrontation with Berryman. He had served with the Fredericksburg Police Department for two years, having started as a volunteer auxiliary officer before becoming a career officer.
