Man Accused of Going to Hospital to Shoot and Kill His Ex-Wife, 1 Month After She Asked for a Protective Order Against Him By Charlotte Phillipp

A Michigan man is accused of fatally shooting his ex-wife in the hospital where she worked, just one month after she asked for a protective order against him.

According to the Detroit Free Press and ABC News, 53-year-old Mario Green was arrested by the Detroit Police Department (DPD) on Saturday, Aug. 23, nearly a day after he walked into Henry Ford Hospital and shot his ex-wife, Latricia Green.

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison told the outlets that Mario walked into the basement of the Detroit hospital just before 10 a.m. local time on Friday, Aug. 22, while his wife was working. After the two got into a “verbal altercation,” Mario pulled out a firearm and shot her multiple times before fleeing the scene, the police chief said.

Investigators are not sure how Mario was able to gain entry to parts of the hospital, Bettison said, adding that the hospital was briefly placed on lockdown.

The Free Press reported that Mario was seen in security camera footage leaving the hospital at approximately 9:55 a.m., before driving away in a 2011 white Dodge Charger. He initially headed northbound on a Michigan freeway, but by 4 p.m. on Aug. 22, Detroit police confirmed that they had found his car abandoned.

At around 3 a.m. on Aug. 23, police revealed that they had taken Mario into custody.

“We are devastated by the loss of our Henry Ford Hospital teammate and our hearts go out to her loved ones — her family, friends, and the people she worked with every day,” the hospital told ABC News in a statement. “We are providing resources to our team members who are dealing with the impacts of this tragic incident. The safety and well-being of our patients, visitors and team members is our greatest priority.”

Local Detroit stations WXYZ and FOX 2 reported that Latricia had twice attempted to file a personal protection order against her ex-husband, whom she split from in 2018. The first was denied, and the second was granted but never served.

When Latricia first attempted to get a protection order on June 13, she wrote in court documents that Mario “continued to call my job and threaten to meet employees outside” and “showed up to my job and tried to enter my office without my approval to get to me,” per WXYZ. A Wayne County Circuit Court judge denied the request.

Latricia filed again on July 20, stating at the time that Mario’s behavior had escalated.

“Since I was denied, he has now been able to break into my car and cut up my clothes, shoes and steal belongings from me, and he followed me [on] multiple occasions [and] has tried to break my car window,” she wrote, per WXYZ.

“I have tried being cordial because I feel that the system has now let me down each time that I have tried to make reports on this man. My father was murdered, and now with this situation I am now in mental distress and scared not knowing what to do,” Latricia added in her July application.

“I have to constantly look over my shoulder to make sure this man is not following me to hurt me like he has done in the past with physical abuse,” she further wrote. “I am asking for help before this goes too far, and things are too late.”

A judge granted the protection order on July 21, but DPD Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald told WXYZ that it was not served to Mario. The outlet reported that Wayne County allows for protective orders to be served by a process server or court officer, through a third party or by certified mail.

“Unfortunately, [the PPO] was not served on her ex-husband,” Fitzgerald told the outlet. “So it almost brings us here today.”

Speaking with WXYZ after her death, Latricia’s friends and family said that they are still grappling with her murder.

“When you see his picture, it’s like, ‘I know him,’ ” her cousin Deantjuan Jones told the outlet. “And to think that it happened at the place where she worked.”

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Another one of Latricia’s cousins, Rodney Hickman, told WXYZ that the hospital employee hadn’t been silent when it came to asking for help.

“As early as last week, a friend told me he followed her home from work and ran her off the road, so she made another police report,” Hickman said. “We’re not sitting here gonna point the finger but at the same time, she was a woman crying out for help.”

Following her tragic death, the local community is remembering Latricia as a “magnificent” person.

“She was more than a friend,” Devin Wilford, Latricia’s co-worker, said. “She was a mother, she was a wife, she did her job.”

“She was such a sweet person. She didn’t deserve what happened to her at all,” Jones added.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.