A Fredericksburg police officer and a suspect were killed late last night in a shot-filled incident fueled by the suspect’s apparent obsession with a former girlfriend.
Officer Todd Bahr, 40, a member of the city force for just under two years, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, city police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said.
The suspect, 47-year-old Gregory Berryman, died in a shoot-out with police in the Belmont Apartments parking lot off Cowan Boulevard near the police station.
Bledsoe said Berryman was shot multiple times by city officers after he fired shots at them and an unoccupied police cruiser shortly after 11 p.m.
Police said that after being struck, the suspect put his own gun to his head and fired.
At that time, Bledsoe said, police were unaware that Bahr had been shot. He was found about 15 minutes later near the 2500 block of Manor Court.
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Berryman, whose last known address was in Stafford, was no stranger to city police. He was arrested in September when he entered a home in the 1500 block of Airport Avenue looking for the same former girlfriend.
According to police reports, Berryman was carrying a rifle wrapped in a blanket. He confronted a woman who lived there and ordered her to lead him to the former girlfriend.
At that time, police said the woman had broken up with Berryman several weeks later. She no longer lived at the residence, and the resident told Berryman she didn’t know where she’d moved to.
Berryman was charged with armed breaking and entering, abduction and carrying a concealed weapon.
He was convicted in Fredericksburg General District Court on Oct. 18 of brandishing a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon, both misdemeanors, and got two 12-month jail terms, one of which was suspended.
It was not clear this morning when Berryman got out of jail, but defendants generally only have to serve half of active misdemeanor sentences, meaning Berryman could have been freed after six months from his arrest date.