Slain Mobile Officer Steven Green honored during a flag ceremony

MOBILE, Al.
 Slain Officer Steven Green was honored during a flag ceremony Monday afternoon at Mobile police headquarters on Government Boulevard.
Officers, cadets and civilian staff members stood silent in formation behind an honor guard on the front lawn as a procession of Alabama and Florida law enforcement personnel arrived from Pensacola.
They were escorting an American flag donated by the Honor Network, an Austin Texas-based nonprofit. It was founded after the 9/11 terror attacks to provide flags for the funerals of fallen service members, law officers and firefighters.
After exiting a black SUV in the center of the procession, Officer Gaston Villaseca held the folded flag against his chest and slowly led other members of the Fifth Precinct, Squad 4 — Officer Green’s squad — up the sidewalk to Police Chief Micheal T. Williams, who stood next to Green’s widow, Valerie.
Williams and Valerie Green then turned and led the procession into the lobby of police headquarters, where the flag was placed on display in a memorial that included a wreath wrapped in black ribbon with a photograph of Officer Green in the center.
After the ceremony, Valerie Green and the slain officer’s mother, Erica Hyter, spoke to members of the media to say thank you to the community for prayers and support.

Valerie Green addresses media during flag ceremony

"My husband loved doing his job. He never met a stranger," Valerie Green said, holding a wedding photo of she and her husband in one hand, and a portrait photo of their family in the other. "He was the sweetest person I’ve ever met and he would do anything for anybody."
Erica Hyter said, "At this time I love my son so, I’m in disbelief. I can’t believe that this is actually happening."
Robbery suspect Lawrence Wallace Jr. attacked and stabbed Steven Green on Friday afternoon moments after being removed from a patrol car at Mobile County Metro Jail.
Police spokeswoman Ashley Rains compared the department to a family and said that the days following Green’s death had been "very rough." But she said that Monday’s ceremony would "help our family heal."
"None of us feels as though we’ve really moved past the loss of Brandon Sigler in 2009," Rains said. "It’s just a deeper loss with another officer."
Sigler had been the most recent officer killed in Mobile. While off duty, he was fatally shot in June 2009 as he tried to break up a fight in the parking lot of the apartment complex where he lived.

 

Green, 36, died at the University of South Alabama Medical Center hours after Wallace stabbed him. Wallace later shot police Officer Mark Johnson in the arm before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with police on Daytona Drive.
Green is also survived by three young children.
Within hours of his death, people were posting messages of condolence and support on a Facebook page set up for the family, and several opportunities now exist for those wishing to make donations.

Donations can be sent to the Mobile Police Law Enforcement Foundation at 2460 Government St. Mobile, AL 36606, or made at any branch of Community Bank and Mortgage.