McAlester Police Department honors fallen officers

The McAlester Police Department honored fallen officers on Saturday, April 6, 2024 with the commemoration of a headstone and a tree at the McAlester Heroes Memorial in Mike Deak Park.

“These markers honor the lives and legacies of our fallen officers and symbolize our deepest appreciation of their service, sacrifice, and camaraderie,” MPD Chief Kevin Hearod said. “Today serves as a solemn reminder of their sacrifices as we honor their memories by reaffirming our commitment to protecting and serving our community.”

The headstone honors eight fallen 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.

MPD Capt. Richard Parker died of natural causes at his home March 16, 2023. He grew up in Wetumka, where he graduated high school in 1988 before earning a criminal justice degree from East Central University and then working for the Pittsburg County Sheriff’s Office. He joined 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.

Officer Joseph Barlow was 26 when he died on March 20, 2023 from injuries he received in a head-on collision while helping escort 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.

Master Patrolman Danny Kelley 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.

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.

The City of McAlester again offers condolences to the officers’ families and asks the community for continued support. The City also the community to honor and preserve the memories of our community’s fallen heroes at McAlester Heroes Memorial in Mike Deak Park.