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Todd Allen Bahr had been a police officer for only two years before he was killed while doing his job last Friday, but he won the respect and friendship of many area law enforcement professionals long before he donned a uniform and badge for the first time. Date published: 6/12/2008
BY EMILY BATTLE
Todd Allen Bahr had been a police officer for only two years before he was killed while doing his job last Friday, but he won the respect and friendship of many area law enforcement professionals long before he donned a uniform and badge for the first time. Warren Finkelman, deputy chief of police in Seat Pleasant, Md., worked for the Stafford County Sheriff's Office when Bahr owned Damage Incorporated, a Stafford gun shop Bahr named for a song by his favorite band, Metallica. Finkelman said Bahr's shop became a favorite hangout for local law enforcement officers. Those and many other officers from around the state and beyond are expected to come to the area today to honor Bahr. Bahr, 40, was killed Friday night after being shot by a man who police believe was heading to the Cowan Boulevard apartment of his ex-girlfriend to do her harm. Bahr's funeral will be held today at 11 a.m. at Spotswood Baptist Church on Lafayette Boulevard. A committal service with full police honors will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens on U.S. 1. The more he talked with Bahr, Finkelman said, the more he got the sense that Bahr felt a calling to police work, but feared me might be too old to enter the field. Finkelman said he and others convinced Bahr that wasn't the case. Between getting to know Bahr and observing how he interacted with visitors to his shop, Finkelman believed he saw the makings of a great policeman. "If you can pin down the best qualities of your best police officers, it's somebody who is smart, mature and even-mannered," Finkelman said. "He was all of those things. He would be what I consider to be the ideal applicant." Bahr gave a lot of himself just to get to the point where he could apply for a full-time job as a police officer. He sold his shop to Eric Thomas, who took Bahr on as an employee while he spent 10 months in police training as an auxiliary. Thomas said Bahr probably always had a deep-down draw to police work, but he began pursuing the idea in earnest after riding along with a city police officer in 2005. On the night Bahr was shot, another officer responding to the scene had a ride-along with him.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 6/12/2008
Todd was someone who you would feel comfortable talking to after only knowing him a short time. I always enjoyed listening to his perspective of certain situations. I also liked how he would pick up a part of a gun you were cleaning and start scrubbing on it. Just one of those things that endears a person to you...I hope some of him has rubbed off on me.
Free Lance Star. Todd was an exemplary person and a personal friend. I am pleased that you shared a portion of his passion and devotion to the cause of justice. Todd lived a noble life and will be remembered in our hearts. His life, BY EXAMPLE, not by rhetoric, touched many people and should serve as an inspiration to all citizens.
God Bless you Todd. Your spirit lives on.
It is so sad that we do not know of wonderful people like Officer Bahr so we can show our appreciation, But then, I truly believe that he would not have wanted the attention. I have a very deep appriciation for law enforcement officers, the military and teachers. Our freedoms and rights are protected by their sacrifices. While I slept he gave his life in the line of duty, I was three minutes away and unaware. My sincere condolences to his family, his brothers and sisters in police work, his many friends.
a true hero, not only by being a police officer but by his actions every day in life. I wish I had the honor of knowing him.
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