Sergeant’s generosity stood out

In uniform and in his private life, Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore was a generous man.

He was an officer who stopped to talk to kids, complimenting them for wearing bike helmets. He coached youth soccer.

In the department where he worked for 16 years, Moore was known for his dry wit and engaging grin, as well as his calm during emergencies.

“Greg was outgoing, gregarious, and he loved his work,” said John Brumley, his former father-in-law. “He was incredibly dedicated to the men and women he worked with.”

Thousands of people are expected for Moore’s 10 a.m. memorial service today at Lake City High School, where he once worked as a school resource officer. Moore died Tuesday after being shot early that morning during a confrontation with an armed felon. Jonathan Daniel Renfro, 26, of Rathdrum, is facing first-degree murder charges in his death.

Colleagues and friends said Moore embodied the ideals of “protect and serve.” He was a seasoned officer with a gift for connecting with people. Police work sometimes turns officers into cynics, but Moore remained positive and upbeat.

“Even if things were bad on the outside, he’d always find a way to have a smile,” said David Kelley, a fellow officer in the department. “And he would never stop talking.”

Moore, 43, grew up in a law enforcement family. His father, Fred Moore, retired as a captain from the Walla Walla Police Department, and he spent his childhood in the small, southeast Washington city. In addition to his mother, Sherri, the family included two other boys, Fred Jr. and Chris.

Moore earned a degree in wildlife resources from the University of Idaho in 1997. He wanted to be a law enforcement officer for a state wildlife agency and spent a summer hazing elk from croplands for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. But since wildlife law enforcement jobs were scarce, he went to work at the Asotin County Sheriff’s Department instead.

Police work quickly became his passion. In 1999, he was hired by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. Moore worked as a patrol officer, trained and mentored other officers and coordinated the reserve officer program. He was part of the hostage negotiation team, and he spent several years as a school resource officer. In 2012, he was promoted to sergeant.

Family also was important to him. Moore and his first wife, Jennifer Brumley, had a son together, 12-year-old Dylon. The couple divorced in 2005 but maintained an amicable relationship that included camping trips as a blended family with their new spouses.

Working the graveyard shift allowed Moore to pick up his son after school, oversee homework and coach his son’s soccer teams. He and his second wife, elementary school teacher Lindy Moore, have a 1-year-old daughter, Gemma. Moore treasured the days off when he was her caregiver.

People were drawn to Moore, both as an officer and a friend. He took a genuine interest in them, and they responded to that, friends and co-workers said.

At work, Moore took time to build rapport with other departments. He dropped by Coeur d’Alene fire stations when he could, flopping into a recliner to shoot the breeze. He also stopped in regularly at the Coeur d’Alene dispatch center, where he and the staff talked about recent developments in “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.”

He and Dylan Clark, a Coeur d’Alene firefighter, worked out at the same gym and often traded guff – friendly sparring between a fireman and a cop. “He could one-up you pretty easily,” said Clark, who respected Moore’s competence on the job.

“If we were at a call and Greg was there, everything was in control,” he said. “If you asked me which cop I think the most highly of in the police department, it was him – no disrespect to the other officers.”

When a fire or accident was also a crime scene, “you could rest easy when Greg was there,” said Jeff Butcher, another firefighter. “I could concentrate on providing patient care. He had my back and was protecting us.”

“He was a people person,” said Kelan McKeirnan, also a firefighter. “I lost a friend and I feel like the city truly lost a friend.”

At the Qdoba restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, “everyone knew Greg by name,” said Jon White, the manager.

Moore was at Qdoba nearly every day. He was a favorite of the staff, who knew his regular entrée: chicken burrito with barbecue sauce.

He and White both played softball and had young children. When a party house was disrupting White’s neighborhood, Moore encouraged him to call the police department and offered to do extra patrols.

“It wasn’t a bother to him,” White said. “He wanted to be of service.”

“I don’t think I ever met anyone who didn’t love him,” said Alicia Troye, a family friend. “He genuinely cared about people. He wasn’t like a salesman trying to build a fake relationship with you. He was totally real.”

Last year, Troye snapped a picture of her daughter Quinn, a first-grader, reading to Moore when he was in his patrol car. Her homework was to read a report out loud to an adult.

“She chose Greg. It was super cute,” Troye said. “He was so good with the kids.”

When Quinn got upset by a man yelling in a parking lot, and was scared to go places, Moore talked to her about the incident.

“He told her that it was his job to keep her safe,” Troye said.

In one of his last Facebook posts, Moore described how he stopped to help a crossing guard who was fixing a child’s bike, even though he was running late to get his son to a soccer game. Sometimes, you just have to stop and help people, Moore told his son.

The incident captures Moore’s generous nature, said Darci Haug, a probation officer who played softball with Moore.

“That has Greg written all over it,” Haug said.