Cox: Mother of two
A member of the Labour Party, Cox, 41, was killed in Birstall, West Yorkshire in Northern England on Thursday at about 1 p.m.. She was the MP of the area and was outside her office where she’d been meeting with a group of constituents when she was kicked, shot and stabbed.
The mother of two, aged 3 and 5, had no chance to move away and no security was there to thwart the gunman. U.K. press has identified him as 52-year-old Thomas Mair (some publications called him “Tommy” Mair); he was tackled to the ground by police, who swarmed the area shortly after the attack.
Witnesses said Mair, a local gardener, shouted “Britain First” multiple times. There is a right-wing political party in the U.K. of that name. Police say they are investigating his motive and there is a report that the gun he used was either very old or homemade.
Cox had been receiving threatening hate mail for months and police were preparing to provide her with security. It’s unknown if any of the hate mail was penned by her killer.
Killer a neo-Nazi
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the U.S. said they obtained information Mair was “…was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organization in the United States, for decades.”
The SPLC said that Mair “purchased a manual from the NA in 1999 that included instructions on how to build a pistol.” They also said he contributed money to the NA.
Cox became a Member of Parliament in the election of 2015 but long before her victory she was doing community work and working for social causes. Tributes have poured in and she has been described as a “tireless worker” and a “fearless” champion of social justice.
Cox was a campaigner for the side that believes Britain should remain in the European Union and worked hard to get her views out ahead of The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum (also called the EU or Brexit referendum) scheduled for June 23 in the U.K. and Gibraltar.
Both sides in the debate have agreed to suspend the campaign in the wake of the shooting and there is a possibility the plebiscite will be changed to a later date. Prime Minister David Cameron told the nation “we have lost a great star” and Cox’s husband, Brendan, urged people to fight against hatred.
“(Her death) is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives,” Brendan Cox said in a statement. “More difficult, more painful, less joyful, less full of love. I and Jo’s friends and family are going to work every moment of our lives to love and nurture our kids and to fight against the hate that killed Jo.”
