Retired Pensacola police sergeant dies from shot to head

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

Associated Press

PENSACOLA — A retired police sergeant has died, one week after he was shot in the head during his morning walk.

James Hallman Jr., 59, died Sunday at Sacred Heart Hospital. He was one of two people shot on Feb. 23, allegedly by a 19-year-old who suffered from mental problems. Escambia County sheriff's investigators believe Hallman was shot at random, but they have not yet established a motive for the other shooting.

"He would do anything for anyone and has done it his entire life," Pensacola Police Chief John Mathis said of Hallman. "He has taken people in; he has cared for people who need help. You will not find a kinder soul. It's just so senseless."

Christopher Lee Phipps, a 26-year-old house painter, was shot inside his Pensacola home about 40 minutes before Hallman. He was in critical condition Sunday at West Florida Hospital.

Prosecutor David Rimmer said he will seek a first-degree murder indictment against Ryan Green.

Green was arrested the day of the shootings and is charged with attempted murder and grand theft of an automobile. Deputies said he drove off in Phipps' white 1991 Thunderbird after the first shooting.

Green has suffered from mental problems for about a year and was treated at the Lakeview Center, a community mental health facility in Pensacola, according to his mother, Cynthia Green.

She said her son has some schizoid tendencies and bipolar manic-depression disorder. He had a psychotic breakdown two days before the shooting and had not taken medication he had been prescribed for his mental condition, she said.

Ryan Green was at the center of a controversy over wearing a Star of David pendant to school in Gulfport, Miss., nearly four years ago as a tribute to his Jewish heritage. School officials backed down after initially trying to ban the pendant, claiming it was a gang symbol.