Before he became a sergeant for the Lakewood Police Department, Mark Renninger, was a Tukwila police officer.

On Sunday, Nov. 29 Sgt. Renninger, along with three officers, was gunned down by a man police suspect was Maurice Clemmons at a coffee shop in Lakewood.

The suspect entered the café and opened fired on the four, killing them all before he took off, not to be caught until Tuesday, Nov. 1 by a Seattle patrol officer, who ended up shooting and killing the man.

A father of three and a husband, Renninger was 39 years old and had spent 13 years in law enforcement.

In Tukwila from 1996 up until five years ago, Renninger was a patrol officer, a member of a SWAT team, and was president of the Tukwila Police Officers' Guild, for a time.

"I was his field training officer," said Officer Ted Rutt, a Tukwila cop since 1989. "He was really dedicated."

"He was always proactive," Rutt said. "He wanted to learn everything right away."

Rutt said he had to tell Renninger that they would "get to that" in due time, because Renninger wanted to learn everything at once.

Rutt remembers when Renninger was able to prevent a man from jumping off a bridge in Tukwila. While another officer distracted the man, Renninger was able to grab him away from the edge of the bridge.

In 2005, the City of Tukwila awarded Renninger a medal of merit, even after he'd moved on to the newly established Lakewood Police Department.

In a press release, the Tukwila department said, "Mark was an outstanding police officer and a well-liked member of the department during his time with us."

Unlike his three colleagues slain at the same time, Renninger was not an original member of the Lakewood department.

He left Tukwila to join the Lakewood department a few months after it formed.

The skills Renninger brought from Tukwila were very valuable to the new department, according to Brian D. Wurts, president of the Lakewood Police Independent Guild.

Writing on the guild's Web site, Wurts called Sgt. Renninger "the go to guy for everything" and "truly a rock in our department, someone you always counted on."

Wurts noted, "He was the most competent and tactically proficient man I ever knew in police work.

"He simply could take any training situation and make it work no matter what group he was teaching.

"This was the last guy any of us thought would have died like this. There is no doubt in my mind he did not see anything coming."

Renninger taught the Washington State Tactical Officers Association's basic course. He was the group's chief financial officer and a board member. He instructed firearms, chemical munitions and patrol classes.

The former Tukwila guild president "was the savviest negotiator I have ever met," according to Wurts. Renninger was on the Lakewood guild's board.

Wurts added, "Mark has three kids and a great wife that the toughest cop I knew softly spoke about."

In a statement Matt Renninger described his brother as "a loving and devoted father, husband and family member who will be missed by many."

Renninger grew up in Pennsylvania before coming to Washington state with the military and then staying here to begin his police career in Tukwila.

The Tukwila Police Department held a "Tip a Cop" fundraising event Dec. 4 at the Tukwila Claim Jumper Restaurant to benefit the families of the four Lakewood police officers.