UT Tower Police hero laid to rest

Hundreds of friends, family and police officers showed their respects to for police officer Houston McCoy. They say he was a humble man who never wanted to be defined by that one event back on August 1966.

"I still look back at that day and you can't not look back at it and think if it hadn't been for Houston" said Milton Shoquist, a former police partner of McCoy, "A  lot more of us might now have come down off that tower.

McCoy, a 5 year veteran with the Austin police became a symbol of courage and service that other officers aspired to be.

"He represents a man who left a legacy of courage, left a legacy of service", said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, "Rather lay down our lives rather than sway from the path of duty and here's a guy that put those words into action".

Officers say McCoy was right at the center of what turned out to be a new era in law enforcement. They say his actions alone were responsible for saving many more lives than the ones lost.

"It changed law enforcement tremendously, swat teams came from that, university police departments came from that', said UT Police Chief Robert Dahlstrom, "It really changed history when that incident happened in a very sad way.

And as McCoy is laid to rest, his friends, family and APD family say he'll always be part of Austin's history, but also part of their lives forever.