McAlester Police Department honors fallen heroes with wreaths

Members of the McAlester Police Department placed wreaths Dec. 20, 2023 to honor 11 fallen law enforcement officers.

MPD officers placed wreaths in memory of Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Deputy Howard Murray, Krebs Police Officer John Parker, Pea Ridge (Ark.) Police Officer Kevin Apple, and eight McAlester officers: Chief Orrin Henry “Ott” Reed, Corporal Herbert “Heavy Duty” McIntosh, Corporal Ronnie Fox, Detective David Sheehan, Master Patrolman Mitch Weeks, Master Patrolman Danny Kelley, Capt. Richard Parker, and Patrolman Joseph Barlow.

“Our police force mourns with the fallen officers’ families and we hope these wreaths bring solace while honoring their lasting legacies in our community,” MPD Chief Kevin Hearod said.

Officers placed a wreath on the Wetumka memorial for Richard Parker, who was found dead of natural causes at his home March 16, 2023. Parker grew up in Wetumka, where he graduated high school in 1988 before earning a criminal justice degree from East Central University. He then worked for the Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Office before joining the McAlester Police Department in July 1996 and working with McAlester’s tactical response team, serving as the force’s armorer, and working overtime on special projects.

Family members thanked officers for placing a wreath for Barlow, who was 26 when he died on March 20, 2023 from injuries he received in a head-on collision while helping escort Richard Parker. Barlow enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2013 and graduated from McAlester High School in 2015. He served in the U.S. Army Reserves for eight years and worked three years as a correctional officer at the Jackie Brannon Correctional Center in McAlester before joining the McAlester Police Department on Aug. 2, 2021. He also donated his liver, heart, pancreas, and kidney, which led McAlester Regional Health Center to name its first Organ and Tissue Donor Garden outside the hospital’s main entrance in Barlow’s honor.

Officers held a ceremony 14 miles west of McAlester in Scipio for Kelley, who died Jan. 30, 2022 after battling complications from COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit at MRHC. Law enforcement officers, emergency responders, friends and family gathered to shine their lights and honk their horns to support Kelley during his battle. The former master patrolman worked 13 years for MPD and previously served several years with the Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Department. His wife, Shelly, thanked officers and joined them in honoring the other fallen heroes.

Ott Reed was McAlester’s police chief when he was one of four law enforcement officers killed what became known as the Kansas City Massacre on June 17, 1933. Reed assisted in arresting Pretty Boy Floyd gang member Frank Nash, who had been released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to fight in World War I before Reed and two FBI agents arrested him in Hot Springs, Ark. They drove Nash to Ft. Smith, then traveled by train to Kansas City, where other gang members ambushed them. Four officers and Nash died in the shootout.

McIntosh was 35 and an 11-year MPD veteran when he died of a heart attack during the “hoot owl” shift on the morning of May 9,1984. The former corporal is memorialized with a McAlester street in his name — the city renamed the portion of South Fourteenth Street between Wade Watts Avenue and Carl Albert Parkway as Herbert McIntosh Jr. Street in 2021 — and he is listed on the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial in Oklahoma City that honors officers who died while on-duty.

Fox and Sheehan were passengers in single-engine plane being used to search for marijuana grows in July 1981 when it crashed in the Jackfork Mountains of Pittsburg County, killing the MPD officers and an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agent. Fox joined MPD in 1973 and Sheehan had served nearly 4 years with the department.

Weeks died of a heart attack while on break during his shift Jan. 6, 2012 following several emergency calls he responded to that required quick response. He served as a McAlester police officer for 26 years and 3 months.

Murray served a search warrant in January 1910 on a man’s home, where he found homemade “Choc” beer and destroyed it. The same man was drunk in the streets of Adamson, a town 13 miles east of McAlester, when he pulled a gun and fired a shot at Murray, who then pulled his gun and both fired a shot that missed. Both men fired another shot, with the man being fatally struck in his heart and Murray being fatally struck in the head.

John Parker was the Krebs town marshal who died on New Year’s Eve in 1933 after being shot while conducting an arrest for a public disturbance. The marshal struck a suspect in the head before taking the person to a doctor’s office, where another scuffle led to Parker being shot in the upper chest. The City of Krebs honored the fallen officer with a plaque and ceremony in 2018.

Apple was struck and killed June 26, 2021 by a vehicle after the Pea Ridge (Ark.) officer approached a suspect who fled from another law enforcement agency. His obituary states he “was known for his goofy laugh, practical jokes, and infectious smile” and “he would help anyone who needed it without question.” Apple graduated from Amber-Pocasett High School in 1986 and from police academy in 1996.