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Slain police Officer Todd Bahr smiled broadly while offering doughnuts to another officer when he was at the police academy. Bahr |
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.
The officer told the passenger to go into the hallway of an apartment building at the Belmont complex, and to stay there until he came to get him.
The car they were riding in was the police cruiser that was peppered with bullet holes after Friday's incident.
While most full-time officers are drawing a paycheck from the police department while they're in training, Bahr did his training on weeknights and Saturdays on his own time.
He didn't even know whether, at the end of his training, there would be a full-time position for him to apply for, but one came up, and he was hired.
Thomas said that Bahr was so intent on being a good police officer that the two friends would spend entire days driving the streets of downtown Fredericksburg so that Bahr could memorize the quickest routes to respond to calls.
"On his own time, he learned, because he was so concerned about wanting to become a full-time officer," Thomas said.
He bought a mini-spell-check device to make sure his police reports would be precise, and he practiced his handwriting in a notebook to make sure they'd be legible.
"He was determined to be a cop," Thomas said.
But that wasn't his only passion.
Thomas said Bahr always sought to balance his police work with his work teaching gun safety courses and spending time with his wife, Stefanie.
At Thomas' shop, which became Combat Solutions and recently moved to the Bowman Center in Spotsylvania County, Bahr was a constant presence and a valuable helper.
He taught pre-deployment classes for law enforcement officers on their way to Iraq or Afghanistan to help with investigations.
He taught home firearms safety courses, and Thomas said he did such a thorough job explaining the benefits and dangers of owning a gun that some of his students decided they didn't want one in their home after taking his class.
"He went above and beyond to make sure we'd done the best education possible," Thomas said.
He didn't expect much in return. When Thomas and his wife gave Bahr a Christmas bonus in his paycheck last year, he looked at the check and told Thomas' wife something was wrong--it was for too much money.
Bahr taught and met a lot of people, and as a result, Thomas said, his shop has been flooded with phone calls, visitors and e-mails--some from officers in Iraq and Afghanistan--sending their condolences and mourning Bahr's death.
At Fredericksburg's police headquarters, Bahr's badge number, 337, has been retired. His locker also has been retired, and a memorial plaque will be placed on the outside of it.
Finkelman said Bahr earned the highest respect.
"The highest compliment a cop can pay another cop is, 'I'd go through a door with you at any time,'" he said. "I can say that without hesitation about Todd."
Thomas said he considers his friend a hero.
"By giving his life, he detoured that man from going back to that girl's apartment," Thomas said. "He saved her life. He's one of those people who you wish you would have in your life all the time.
"Nobody should forget who he is."
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
Todd Bahr played a big role in plans to build Bahr had been a teacher of gun use and gun safety since before his police days, and Combat Solutions owner Eric Thomas said he had a true gift for instruction. Thomas said the range will now be named in Bahr's honor. While the details are still preliminary, he said he plans to donate a portion One lane on the range will be designated as Bahr's, and will bear his unit number and a memorial plaque. Thomas said he plans to give the proceeds from that lane for at least the first year the range is open to Bahr's wife, Stefanie. "We all basically said we wanted Todd to still be a part of this," Thomas said. "We thought that was the least we could do." --Emily Battle |
| Reception for police officers set at UMW after funeral
The Fredericksburg tourism department will host a reception at the University of Mary Washington's Woodard Campus Center today for law enforcement officers and others after today's funeral for Fredericksburg police Officer Todd Bahr. The reception will begin about noon and last until about 3 p.m. UMW police are expecting 600 to 700 law enforcement officers to attend. Parking for vehicles will be in the parking deck, but some participants may park elsewhere on campus. The driveway to the Campus Center will be closed from the end of Lot 15 at Willard Hall to the Campus Center from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. |
