Hundreds of students piled into Texas Tech’s memorial circle on Tuesday evening to honor the life of fallen TTU officer, Floyd East Jr. who was killed on Monday evening. At the vigil there was on student in particular who caught attention with a thoughtful sentiment.
Mechanical Engineering sophomore, Alex Palumbo climbed up on a stone platform to hold a “back the blue” flag during the entire vigil until every student left.
“I heard someone say under their breath ‘You are my hero’ and I was thinking, I’m not a hero, the man who lost his life is a hero, the men and women who do this everyday are a hero,I’m just someone holding a flag,” Palumbo said.
Palumbo said he didn’t raise the flag to bring attention to himself, but beause it’s what he believes in.
“The way I was raised is respect police officers, respect firemen, respect military because those are the ones that are sacrificing their lives each and every day to keep others safe,” Palumbo said.
He said it was emotional to interact with other officers at the vigil who were thankful for his gesture.
“I had some people come up and shake my hand, students and faculty, I almost started crying when a police officer came and shook my hand, I said: ‘Don’t thank me, I’m thanking y’all for what you’re doing,” Palumbo said.