Reports say the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was left bleeding on the floor by her attacker in Birstall.
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The New Democrat MP calls her a friend and a mother of two lovely children, saying she spoke for those who had no voice.
Ms Cox chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria and is now a backbencher.
Witnesses told British media the assailant appeared to have been waiting for Cox outside a library in the town of Birstall, where she had been meeting constituents. “She was ideal in every single way”, fellow Labour Party politician Shabir Pandor said.
British media cited locals as saying she had been shot and stabbed by a man shouting “Britain first”.
Cox was pronounced dead at 1:48pm (1248 GMT) by a doctor working with a paramedic crew that was attending to her.
It has also emerged that a man was cautioned earlier this year after Mrs Cox told police she had received “malicious communications”.
Leah Ainley, who lives in Risedale Avenue where Mair was arrested, said armed police surrounded him and pinned him to the ground.
In 2000, a Liberal Democrat local councillor was murdered by a man with a samurai sword at the offices in western England of lawmaker Nigel Jones, who was also seriously hurt in the attack.
Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attack, which was described as “a localised incident”. She was critical of Britain’s reluctance to deepen its military involvement against Islamic State militants, but abstained in a vote on airstrikes because she said the plan didn’t devote enough attention to stopping the “brutality” of President Bashar Assad.
“This is a very significant investigation with a large number of witnesses that are being spoken to by the police at this time”.
How rare are MP killings?
Ian Gow had been the last, assassinated by Irish Republican Army paramilitaries in 1990.
The IRA killed Anthony Berry in the 1984 bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel where prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet were staying.
Before she died, Brendon Cox posted a lovely photo of his wife on social media with no words.
“We are all absolutely devastated and shocked and our thoughts are very much with Brendan, the children and the family at this truly bad time”.
They lived on a converted barge near Tower Bridge in London.
Her husband and two young daughters were on a “Stronger In” boat campaigning on the River Thames on Wednesday, she tweeted at the time.
As for members of her Labour Party, Cox’s death marks an unimaginable loss.
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Mair lived in the house being searched. Collins said officers had “recovered some weapons” but did not give more details.
“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”, he wrote.
Following her death, he husband said, “She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous”.
“Weak leadership, poor judgment and a mistaken sense of priorities have created distraction after distraction and stopped us getting our message across”, the article said.
Cox, who was 41, quickly gained a reputation in Westminster as a campaigning MP who was unafraid to speak her mind. She had a great track record of caring about refugees and had taken a big interest in how we can look after Syrian refugees and do the right thing in our world.
Both campaigns have suspended their activities.
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“The whole of the Labour family, and indeed the whole country, is in shock and grief”.
