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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Suspect says he shot CdA officer for fear his gun would be found; video captured shooting

Jonathan Daniel Renfro told investigators Tuesday that he shot Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore with his 9 mm Glock pistol because he had the gun in his pocket and knew the officer was going to find it, court records say. The 26-year-old suspect in the officer’s slaying also admitted to police that he used hydrocodone and methamphetamine the day before the attack in a northwest Coeur d’Alene residential neighborhood, according to a probable cause affidavit that summarizes Renfro’s interview with investigators.

Photo: Court-appointed public defender Mayli Walsh sits next to Jonathan Renfro, who is suspected of shooting Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore. He made his first appearance on Tuesday. SR Photo: Kathy Plonka

Moore died Tuesday evening at Kootenai Health. He is the first Coeur d’Alene police officer to be killed in the line of duty. With a police escort, his body was transported this morning to the Spokane County Medical Examiner for an autopsy. Court documents offer a chilling account of the confrontation based on investigators’ viewing of Moore’s body camera footage, which captured both video and audio. It shows that Moore (pictured, left), on patrol around 1:20 a.m., made contact with Renfro, who was walking along West Wilbur Avenue at the intersection with West Timberlake Loop. Moore spoke with the suspect and ran his identification through police dispatch. Renfro was on felony parole. Moore then asked Renfro to step over to his patrol car. “At that point Renfro is observed shooting Sgt. Moore,” Idaho State Police Senior Detective Michael Van Leuven said in an affidavit. “After being shot, Sgt. Moore falls to the ground, causing his body camera to point skyward. A short time later Renfro’s face comes back into frame. Renfro is seen using a flashlight while searching Sgt. Moore’s person. “A few seconds later the voices of a man and a woman can be heard in the background. Renfro leaves the frame of the camera again. A car door can be heard shutting and a vehicle driving away.” Renfro admitted in the police interview that he took Moore’s sidearm from its holster after he had shot the officer, and also took two pistol magazines and a flashlight off of Moore. The suspect also stated that he drove away in the patrol car in an attempt to flee the scene of the shooting, then abandoned it in Post Falls “because he believed law enforcement was tracking it using an on-board GPS tracking system,” Van Leuven wrote in the affidavit. A Wilbur Avenue resident, Cindy Allen, called 911 about 1:34 a.m. to report hearing a loud, pop-type noise from the street outside her house. “She went outside and observed a patrol vehicle drive away from the area and saw someone laying in the street,” Van Leuven wrote. The detective said he also interview Chris Werts, Allen’s companion, who said he came out of the house after hearing the loud noise and saw the police car parked in the middle of the street, facing east, just west of his house. Werts said he also saw an adult male standing over another figure lying on the ground, Van Leuven wrote. “Werts said he yelled at the standing subject, who then got into the patrol vehicle and left the area at a high rate of speed traveling eastbound on Wilbur Avenue,” he wrote. After Allen called 911, a Post Falls Police Department officer aired the information that a Coeur d’Alene officer was down and that his vehicle was presumed missing. Police say Renfro raced past a Post Falls police officer heading west on West Seltice Way at 1:43 a.m., triggering a high-speed pursuit and then a foot search that ended with the suspect’s apprehension near a Wal-Mart store. The stolen police car was found abandoned at Pointe Parkway and Beck Road. Renfro told investigators he ditched the car in Post Falls “because he believed law enforcement was tracking it using an on-board GPS tracking system,” Van Leuven wrote in the affidavit. Police using a K-9 unit found Renfro hiding under a semi-trailer near the Wal-Mart. He had 9 mm bullets in his pocket, investigators said, and Moore’s service pistol was found near the suspect. A second 9 mm pistol was found in a nearby field along with Moore’s flashlight and Renfro’s eyeglasses, the affidavit states. Renfro was taken to the Kootenai County Jail to be booked. Tuesday afternoon he was charged with attempted murder and four other felonies related to the shooting and escape. The Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney’s office has not yet amended the charges to include murder. A Kootenai County magistrate judge set Renfro’s bail at $2 million. Renfro’s court-appointed attorney, Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams, has asked the court to lower the bond amount “on the grounds that it is excessive,” according to a motion filed today. Adams also has asked the court for a gag order, barring attorneys, investigators, police and other parties in the case from discussing it with the news media. “As this court is aware, this case involves matters that in and of themselves invoke the passions and inflammatory reactions of many in the public,” Adams wrote in the motion. “Law enforcement officers investigating the above entitled matter have already commented on the character, credibility, reputation and criminal record of Jonathan Renfro as well as expressed opinions on his guilt to the media at the televised press conference.” Renfro, who has a criminal history spanning more than a decade, also is charged with stealing a police car, stealing a police gun, being a convict in possession of a gun, and removing a gun from an officer acting in his official capacity. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 15 in 1st District Court in Kootenai County. Senior Judge O. Lynn Brower of Pocatello will preside. Killing a police officer is one of the “aggravating circumstances” that can prompt a death penalty in Idaho in first-degree murder cases. The prosecuting attorney’s office must notify the court of its intent to seek the death penalty within 60 days after the defendant enters a plea.