UT Tower Shooting Memorial
historic place
The UT Tower Shooting Memorial is a historic place located in Austin, Travis County, Texas. It was erected in 2016 by The Tower Memorial Enhancement Group. Before this monument, the first on-campus memorial was dedicated in 1999, and a small plaque was added in 2007, though it did not include victims' names. This memorial commemorates the tragic UT Tower Shooting, which occurred on August 1, 1966. On that day, Charles Whitman, a student and former Marine, began shooting indiscriminately from the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower. Earlier, Whitman had killed his mother and wife. The shooting rampage from the tower lasted 96 minutes. Whitman killed 17 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 others. Austin Police Department officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy, assisted by civilian Allen Crum, ended the attack. The 2016 memorial is a monument made of Texas pink granite, engraved with the names of the 17 victims. It stands as a permanent remembrance of this significant event in Austin's history.