British police said on Saturday they had charged a 52-year-old man in the slaying of lawmaker Jo Cox, and said the suspect appeared to have acted alone. “Keith Allen, his attorney, said there was no indication of what plea would be entered”. The mother of two young children was shot to death Thursday afternoon in her constituency near Leeds.
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Mair has been charged with murder, causing grievous bodily harm, and possession of a firearm and another offensive weapon.
When asked his name by a clerk at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Mair replied “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”, which he repeated once more when asked a second time.
“One MP (member of parliament) described how she had to get her husband to go out and look down the street before she could go out of the front door”, it said after experiencing “intrusive behaviour”.
Then, the suspect shot her three times as she lay on the ground, Cawthorne said.
“Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people”. During the attack, Mair was heard to say words to the effect of, “Britain first, Keep Britain independent, Britain always come first”. Moments before the attack on Cox, Kenny stopped his auto to drop off his wife at Birstall Library when he recognized Cox.
Holding a surgery, a one-to-one meeting much like when a patient consults a doctor, is the bedrock of British politics – a chance for lawmakers to meet, listen to and advise the people who elected them, in an informal atmosphere.
David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn have described the killing as an “attack on democracy”.
He suffered a serious injury to his abdomen and remains in hospital in a stable condition.
Other online documentation linked Mair to a subscription to a pro-apartheid publication from South Africa, SA Patriot, and said he was one of its “earliest subscribers and supporters”.
West Yorkshire Police charged Thomas Mair with murder and other crimes in the attack. She was an open supporter of remaining in the bloc.
As the nation comes to terms with this tragedy, Cox’s killing has muted the tone of public discussions over the upcoming referendum.
Both the “Leave” and “Remain” campaigns, which have been neck-and-neck in the polls, resumed their official activities Sunday with rival rallies in London.
The emotional response to Cox’s death, and the halt in campaigning, has shifted the public focus away from the debate over immigration and economics that had characterized media coverage of the referendum.
On Friday, Britain’s Labour Party said police had questioned a man over an abusive phone call to Ben Bradshaw, a lawmaker in southwestern England. Mair had suspected neo-Nazi links and a history of mental illness.
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The advocacy group said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people.
