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Officer a finalist on "America's Most Wanted" All Star Week

By Tracy Bell
Published: April 14, 2009

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STAFFORD — “America’s Most Wanted” visited Fredericksburg last week to tape interviews with city Chief David Nye and some of his staff. They spoke about police officer Joe Young, a finalist for the show’s All-Star Week 7 segment.

Young, a veteran of the city’s police department, was nominated by an unknown number of votes for his response June 6, 2008 that took the life of fellow officer and Young’s best friend, Todd Bahr.

Bahr was shot and killed in the line of duty. It was the first line of duty death for the Fredericksburg Police Department in 44 years.

That evening, according to police, Young was taking a citizen on a ride-along when a domestic violence incident began to unfold in an apartment complex involving an armed man, Gregory Berryman. Young sent the citizen to a safe area and attended to the situation.

Young has been nominated for his quick thinking after turning up the radio in his police car, making the suspect believe he was still in the car. Doing so enabled him to quickly run to where he needed to be in order to get to the suspect. Ultimately, after multiple shots were fired including seven that Young fired, which wounded the suspect, Berryman took his own life. The area was said to have resembled a combat zone.

It was later discovered that the suspect had shot and killed Bahr.

“America’s Most Wanted” interviewed along with Nye, Officer Young, and Fredericksburg police Sgt. Bill Hallam.

The show aired Saturday at 9 p.m. on Fox Channel 5.

Show host John Walsh said he’d meet the winner of the All Star Week segments next month at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Challenge in Charlotte, N.C.

According to Fredericksburg’s Public Information Officer Natatia Bledsoe, further voting will begin April 16. Visit amw.com/allstar/2009/finalist_index.cfm.

— Tracy Bell