Labour MP Jo Cox died after being shot and stabbed in her West Yorkshire constituency today (16 June), shocking the country and bringing campaigning ahead of the EU Referendum to a halt.
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Grieving local residents laid flowers to near the scene of the attack as police forensic officers were seen examining a shoe and a handbag in a cordoned-off area. Police did not confirm that account.
Abdallah said one of the men was fighting with Cox and then a gun went off twice and “she fell between two cars and I came and saw her bleeding on the floor”.
A man was arrested in March and was cautioned by police, but he is not the man in custody for Thursday’s attack, a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police said.
A neighbor who did not want to be identified said police questioned her and asked if she knew Mair.
Violence against British politicians has been rare since Northern Ireland’s late-1990s peace agreement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron suspended campaigning in Gibraltar following the news of the attack on Cox.
Lord Smith of Finsbury, Master of Pembroke College, stated: “This is the most tragic and bad news”.
“I must stress that investigations are ongoing, a man has been arrested, and we need to let the police do their job in understanding exactly what has happened that led up to this hugely tragic incident and channel all our thoughts into supporting the families and communities affected”, he said.
The Labour MP’s colleagues have described her as an eloquent and effective lawmaker.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn expressed shock at what he called “a horrific murder”.
Eyewitnesses said the man kicked and stabbed Ms Cox and then shot her several times, the final shot aimed at her head.
Violence against politicians is rare in Britain, as are gun attacks, and figures from all parts of the political spectrum and both sides of the European Union debate expressed deep shock.
It wasn’t clear whether Cox had been deliberately targeted.
“The man subsequently accepted a police caution”, police said. He was stabbing her with his knife’.
Cox co-chaired the recently-formed cross-party parliamentary group on Syria.
Cox was elected to the House of Commons only past year and represents a constituency in Yorkshire, northern England, for the main opposition Labour Party. In her maiden speech in Parliament previous year, she spoke of the diversity of her district, which includes Irish Catholics and Indian Muslims.
She was due to celebrate her 42nd birthday next Wednesday.
European Union finance ministers have paid silent tribute to a British lawmaker who was shot and killed a week ahead of a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU.
Cox, who leaves behind a husband and two young children, represented the area she grew up in and had the plight of refugees close to her heart.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on his Twitter page that Cox “was a committed and caring MP”, adding that “It’s right that all campaigning has been stopped after the awful attack”.
He said: “It has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world”.
The MP’s husband Brendan released a statement saying “Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life”.
“Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous”, he added.
US Secretary of State John Kerry described the killing as an “assault on democracy”.
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Mrs Cox was also a friend of Cardiff South and Penarth Labour MP Stephen Doughty before the pair won their seats in parliament. The tragedy took place near a library where she had a meeting with local constituents.
