09:52 AM EDT on Thursday, April 21, 2005

PROVIDENCE -- When police Lt. Mary Day heard that Detective James Allen had been killed in the line of duty, she felt the way she felt when Patrolman Steven M. Shaw was killed.

"It's like you can't breathe, just a little bit," she said.

Day, who sings professionally in her off-duty hours, was a friend of Shaw, who was gunned down by a robber. She wrote a song in tribute to Shaw that she sang at his funeral in 1994 and has sung at other police funerals and events since then.

And now she will sing it at Allen's funeral Mass today.

Entitled "St. Michael By His Side," the song invokes the patron saint of police officers and is appropriate to any officer. Day, who accompanies herself on the guitar, sings in the style of Ann Murray and the late Karen Carpenter.

A day after Shaw was killed, "I was fiddling around with my St. Michael medal, and I just wrote it in five minutes," Day recalled. "It was right there in my heart."

The largest audience to hear Day sing "St. Michael By His Side" was 10,000-plus, when Shaw's name was inscribed on the national police memorial in Washington, D.C. The crowd gathered at a candlelight vigil in honor of fallen police officers.

Day, commander of Community Police District 4 in the West End, knew Allen and his family well before the two of them joined the police force. Her mother worked at the former Smith's restaurant, which the Allen family patronized.

-- Gregory Smith

'St. Michael By His Side'

You wore your badge pinned upon your shirt

You carried a gun to protect those from being hurt

You took an oath and swore to uphold and enforce the law

You gave your all until you could give no more

That's when God took you by the hand

With St. Michael by your side

You walked among the bravest of all men

As a hero, you lived and died

Brother, can you hear us and all this pain we feel inside

And, brother, will you guide us with St. Michael by your side

You wore your heart out upon your sleeve

And you never failed to help those who were in need

You were the finest, the most caring of all men

But most of all, you were our friend

That's when God took you by the hand

With St. Michael by his side

You walked among the bravest of all men

As our hero, you lived and died

Brother, can you hear us and all this pain we feel inside

And, brother, will you guide us with St. Michael by your side