As she approached her 40th birthday, Latricia Green didn’t want to go into the next decade scared and unhappy.

She endured physical and emotional abuse over several years from her ex-husband, Mario Green, whom she had been living with despite their 2018 divorce, said her friend Shaniqua Gibson.

So, on her birthday in March 2025, after the couple got into an argument and Mario Green kicked her out of the house in Detroit, she made up her mind. She left him for good, Gibson recalled.

“It was big for her,” said Gibson, who had witnessed her friend’s bruises and consoled her over the years.

Latricia Green never went back. She lived out of her car, often sleeping at Henry Ford Hospital’s parking lot where she worked as a scheduler, before moving into an apartment in July, rented in Gibson’s name for safety, she said.

She cooked her first meal in her new home. Her couch was in the process of being delivered. But she never really got comfortable, Gibson said. She felt paranoid.

Her “sanctuary” had been her work, Gibson said, but it would be where she ultimately met her demise.

Police say Mario Green shot his former spouse in the basement of Henry Ford Hospital on Aug. 22. Green, 53, was taken into custody early the next day after a manhunt. This week, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office charged him with first-degree murder and several other crimes, including aggravated stalking. He was remanded to jail after his arraignment.

Family members of Mario Green declined to comment when reached by the Free Press. It was unclear, as of Thursday, Aug. 28, who Mario Green’s attorney is because the case has been sealed by the court.

Her close friend and former co-worker Gibson told the Free Press in an interview this week that Latricia Green tried to get help but was let down at each turn, including by the criminal justice system and her employer. Green’s fate is an example of several systematic flaws in the way domestic violence cases are treated in Michigan, advocates have said.

“She literally cried out for help at every step of the way,” Gibson said.

Friend says victim felt scared

Latricia Green and Mario Green had been together 15 years and married for six of those years, Gibson said. They got divorced in 2018, according to court records. But he never allowed Latricia Green to leave, according to Gibson.

He was physically abusive in “the most heinous ways,” Gibson said, recalling the bruises she saw on her friend. She would call off work to try and hide it from co-workers. She also endured mental abuse, degrading her and making her “feel less than.” She hid her struggles from a lot of people, including family, Gibson said, because she didn’t want others to get involved and feared escalation.

Since she left him in March, Mario Green had contacted her “consistently,” Gibson said. Latricia Green went to court twice this summer to get a personal protection order (PPO) against him. The first was denied by a judge because it did not “meet the burden of proof” but the second was granted.

Mario Green repeatedly interfered with her at Henry Ford Hospital, showing up without her permission and trying to grab her, calling her job and threatening colleagues and, most recently, breaking into her car at work, Green wrote in her second PPO application.

“I am asking for help before this goes too far, and things are too late,” she wrote in that July 20 petition. Wayne County Judge Carla Testani granted the PPO a day later.

But a spokesperson for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said it has no record of her requesting for the PPO to be served.

Once a judge signs a PPO, it must be served to the other party, according to the Michigan Legal Help website, meaning the person is notified of court papers filed against them. That can be done through a process server, law enforcement, a friend or relative or certified mail. Serving the PPO may cost a fee. For instance, it costs $26 for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office to serve a personal protection order, plus mileage. If a PPO hasn’t been served, the respondent won’t be immediately arrested for violating the order unless there was a crime.

Once a PPO is granted by the 3rd Circuit Court, a petitioner will get a copy within 24 hours through email, along with directions on how to get the order served. The approved PPOs are also sent via email to local enforcement to be entered into a statewide information system so that it is available to all agencies across Michigan, Chief Judge Patricia Perez Fresard said in a statement to the Free Press.

Fresard said the court wants domestic violence survivors to know they are “not alone and that they have options.”

“We stand ready to help identify resources and connect individuals in Wayne County and the surrounding areas with services that can provide safety, support and hope for the future,” Fresard said, and provided the following court website for additional help: https://www.3rdcc.org/general-information/self-represented-litigants/resources

Gibson wasn’t aware a judge granted the PPO until she saw a news story about it.

Green’s first cousin Dia Brown said she doesn’t know why the PPO wasn’t served.

“Maybe at the last minute, she got scared,” she said. The PPO doesn’t bring the safety of a 24-hour security or a bodyguard for example, Brown said.

In many states, it’s a requirement that PPOs are served for victims at no cost — but not in Michigan. The burden lies on the victim to facilitate service.

And even if a PPO is served, there is usually little to no enforcement of PPOs by law enforcement, Jeni Hooper, the interim executive director at First Step, an organization based in Wayne County that serves victims of domestic and sexual violence, said earlier this week.

Victims face a number of barriers, from having to report violations to a lack of resources and support at the court level to help them navigate the system and make them aware of everything they can do to protect themselves, advocates told the Free Press.

Victim sought help from police, employer, friend says

Gibson said Henry Ford Hospital was aware of Mario Green’s behavior, saying Latricia Green asked her office be moved because her ex-husband knew where she was.

Gibson said Green told her there was a hospital security order forbidding him from the premises and his pictures were in the offices. Latricia Green had conferences with security, she said.

Mario Green knew he was prohibited from coming to the hospital because of his past harassment and stalking of his ex-spouse, Worthy’s office said in a news release. It’s unclear exactly how he knew that.

The basement of the hospital is a public space that doesn’t require security badge access, according to hospital officials.

Gibson expressed frustration over what she described as the hospital’s lack of action.

“She was feeling the escalation, and she was so consistently scared,” Gibson said.

Henry Ford Health spokesperson Dana Jay referred the Free Press to the Detroit Police Department for further questions and provided the following statement on Aug. 28, saying a “thorough internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding this tragedy” is ongoing:

“We offer our profound condolences to Latricia’s family and friends, including the colleagues who came to know and love her in her 20 years as a Henry Ford Health team member,” the statement reads.

“As we mourn the loss of our team member, we are scrutinizing our own security measures so that we can take meaningful steps to enhance the safety and security of our facilities.”

Green also went to Detroit police for help.

Green wrote in her PPO petition that on July 19 she noticed her ex-husband following her “from Oak Park all the way back to the city and on Woodward and the Blvd” and he continued to try and turn his car into hers and block her off.

Green wrote that she went to a police station to file a police report after the incident and was told to go back to Oak Park to make the report. In text messages from July 19 that Gibson shared with the Free Press, Green told her friend she was at the police station but it was “pointless” and that she was tired of crying.

Gibson said her friend went to a Detroit police precinct near the hospital. According to the Detroit Police Department, the sign-in sheet in the lobby of the department’s 3rd Precinct, located at 2875 W. Grand Blvd., did not have her name on July 19. Detroit police do not have a record of her being in the lobby that day.

Green was in distress. She wasn’t sleeping at night. She nearly got into accidents, according to Gibson, because she was trying to see whether her ex-husband was following her.

Mario Green’s ex: ‘I cry for Latricia’

Green has faced past criminal charges that stem from similar incidents with other women.

In January 2001, he was charged in Wayne County with aggravated stalking and domestic violence. In that case, despite having a restraining order filed against him, Green was accused of assaulting a woman and repeatedly threatening and harassing her, according to court documents.

He pleaded guilty to the aggravated stalking felony charge a few months later; prosecutors dropped his domestic violence charge. He was sentenced to five years of probation and had to participate in an intervention program.

In another case involving a different woman, he was charged in 2013 in Wayne County with domestic violence, assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm. A jury found him not guilty.

Another woman, KaTina McCleney, 44, said he stalked her, after they dated and then broke up more than 20 years ago.

She described an incident to the Free Press when she said he followed her and put a gun to her head and said if he couldn’t have her, no one could. She remembers freezing at the time and thinking about her son. McCleney said she filed a police report right away but told the Free Press she couldn’t recall the exact date.

Court records show that she was granted a PPO against Green in 2002. Detroit police said they did not find any police reports from McCleney from 2002.

“I cry for Latricia because this should have never happened to her,” she said.

Green also received a maximum of 7½ years in prison in 2012 after pleading guilty to a felony arson charge and as someone previously convicted of a felony, according to state records. The Wayne County court system indicated he received a shorter sentence on this conviction.

He served just over three years in prison, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. He was paroled in January 2010 and discharged from parole in July 2012.

‘She deserved peace’

Latricia Green, known as “Trish,” was her family’s favorite little cousin — their “baby.” She was fun, loving and silly. She smiled all the time.

Unfortunately, that’s the type of person a “monster” goes after, her first cousin Dia Brown told the Free Press. She has known Green — whose family prefers to use her maiden name Brown — since birth. News of her death at the hands of her ex-husband was devastating for her family.

“She deserved to live. She deserved peace,” Brown told the Free Press.

Now, Latricia Green’s family is living with the aftermath of the loss.

Green, a born and raised Detroiter, came from a close-knit and churchgoing family. She was her late grandmother’s favorite, according to Brown. Green didn’t have children of her own, but ever since she was young, she was very nurturing, caring for her little brother and cousin’s children, Brown said.

“I just hate that he had her in such fear,” she said.

“Latricia was strong. She was the light of any room she was in,” Gibson said, who first met Green in 2016 when she moved to Detroit and started working at Henry Ford Hospital. She was the person you could get sound advice from and she didn’t give up on the people she loved. The pair remained in contact despite Gibson moving away, talking frequently. Green was a bridesmaid at Gibson’s wedding.

Latricia Green’s loved ones want her story — and fate — to change how authorities and the public respond to domestic violence and pleas for help. Brown called for stiffer penalties for domestic violence and violating PPOs. Gibson urged the hospital to enforce safety measures.

Green had recently been accepted into a radiology program at Oakland Community College and had just started her first semester, Gibson said. She loved children and dreamed of being a mom. She wanted to travel and just see more places. But her biggest goal, her friend said, was to be “emotionally safe and secure.”

“She didn’t deserve to live the last few months of her life in absolute fear,” Gibson said.

How to get help: Call Michigan’s Domestic Violence Hotline at 866-864-2338.

Free Press staff writers Andrea May Sahouri, Kristen Jordan Shamus and Dave Boucher contributed to this report.

Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com. 

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