Renfro in police interview denied intent to shoot officer

Jonathan Daniel Renfro told police detectives he was looking for a car to steal and “to collect money on behalf of white supremacists from Native Americans” the night he allegedly shot and killed Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore, according to testimony in court Thursday.

Renfro, 27, is charged with first-degree murder in the early morning shooting of Moore, who was on patrol in northwest Coeur d’Alene.

In a two-hour interview with investigators, Renfro at first denied shooting Moore and blamed the crime on someone named Davis. But he admitted shooting Moore when a detective informed him police had recovered Moore’s body camera footage that showed the confrontation early in the morning of May 5, testified Idaho State Police Detective Michael Van Leuven, the lead investigator in the case.

The white supremacists comment was not explained further during the preliminary hearing, and the transcript and video of the police interview has been sealed by court order. Any ties Renfro may have had with white supremacists has not been revealed in court proceedings.

The probable cause hearing will conclude Wednesday with closing arguments. First District Senior Magistrate Barry Watson then will decide whether to advance the case to district court.

When a detective asked Renfro why he shot Moore, the suspect replied, “Fear,” according to a transcript of the police interview that was read Thursday.

“Fear of what?” the detectives asked him. “Having a gun in my damn pocket,” Renfro answered, according to court testimony.

One of the investigators then asked Renfro, who was on felony parole at the time, if he had been afraid Moore would find the handgun.

“No, I knew he was going to find it,” Renfro said.

Moore allegedly stopped to question Renfro after seeing him, dressed in dark clothing, walking down a sidewalk on Wilbur Avenue in a residential neighborhood a little before 1:30 a.m.

One of the detectives also asked Renfro how Moore had treated him during the encounter. Renfro said he found Moore to be nice and respectful – a “really nice man,” according to the transcript read in court.

Questioning Van Leuven on the stand, Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams referred to a part of Renfro’s police interview in which the defendant was asked when he decided to pull out his gun and shoot Moore. Renfro was asked if it was before Moore got out of his patrol car.

“No, I had no intention of doing it in the first place,” Renfro answered, according to the transcript.

Adams asked if Renfro told detectives he shot Moore because the officer had placed his hand on his service pistol. Van Leuven said yes, but he didn’t recall the exact words Renfro had used.

Adams also asked about Renfro giving Moore his identification, which the officer apparently used to run a check on Renfro’s record, and which later was found in the officer’s clothing at the hospital.

According to the interview transcript, Renfro told detectives, “If my intent was to shoot him, I would have shot him before I gave him my ID.”

Renfro continued in the interview, “I was feeling scared, trapped and concerned,” and as soon as he saw Moore place a hand on his gun, “I didn’t think,” and just reacted, according to the transcript Adams referenced in court.

Moore was given a series of neurological tests in the Kootenai Health emergency room after he was shot, according to testimony earlier in the day.

Almost all of the exams showed him unresponsive, according to Dr. William Ganz, a neurological surgeon called to the hospital to examine Moore in the trauma room.

Ganz, of Neurosurgery and Spine Northwest, was the first witness to take the stand in the second day of Renfro’s preliminary hearing.

Moore’s condition deteriorated through the morning at the hospital, and the officer was confirmed to be brain dead by about 2:30 p.m., Ganz testified.

Kootenai County sheriff’s Det. Jerry Northrup took the stand next and described searches and recovery of evidence in West Post Falls where police arrested Renfro following the shooting. The evidence included Moore’s police car, which was stolen after he was shot, and two handguns and two ammunition magazines. Other evidence found near the abandoned patrol car was a flashlight, a lighter and a pair of eyeglasses, Northrup said.

One of the semiautomatic pistols was found on top of an air brake system reservoir on the underside of a semi-truck trailer parked west of the Wal-Mart store at the Point at Post Falls commercial center. It was the same trailer under which police had found and arrested Renfro earlier that morning, Northrup said.

The detective said he also found two magazine clips sitting atop structural frames under the trailer.

Officers conducting a line search in a field near the Wal-Mart found the second gun.