Community gathers to hold prayer vigil for McAlester officer injured in head-on collision

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — The McAlester Police Department held a prayer vigil Saturday for Officer Joseph Lee Barlow, who was critically injured in a head-on collision on Thursday.

• RELATED: McAlester officer injured in head-on collision identified, remains in critical condition

The police department and community prayed for Barlow outside the station at 1:14 p.m.

Local departments also offered thoughts and prayers to Barlow, Barlow's loved ones, and McAlester police.

Barlow's family released the following statement after the prayer vigil:

The family of Officer Joseph Barlow would like to thank the many Oklahoma communities, especially the City of McAlester and all of their residents for their support they have shown our family. We have received an outpouring of love, support, and prayers which we are grateful. As a family, we have been overwhelmed with all the support. Our family has needed these thoughts and prayers. As a family, we are completely devastated with the events that have occurred on March 17th surrounding the automobile collision that occurred on while the McAlester Police Department and other Law Enforcement Agencies in the State were escorting our fallen brother Captain Richard Parker home. Our family would like to express our thanks to the Glenpool Police Department, the Glenpool Fire Department, The Oklahoma Highway Patrol and EMSA for their quick response to this tragic collision. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to all the staff at St. John Medical Center for their care that they have provided to Officer Barlow. We would also like to express our gratitude to all the law enforcement agencies who came to our aide and provided various services, there are just too numerous to mention. At this time, the family would like to band together and continue to support one another privately. Our goal is to focus on Officer Barlow’s hospitalization and to support one another. Our family would like to request privacy from all media/news outlets at this time. If and when the family is ready to make a statement, we will do so in conjunction with the McAlester Police Department.

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