Police charge suspect in slaying of UK MP Jo Cox

(Reuters) – British police said yesterday they had charged a man in the slaying of lawmaker Jo Cox, and said the suspect appeared to have acted alone.

Jo Cox
Jo Cox

West Yorkshire police said on its website that Thomas Mair, 52, had been charged with the murder of the 41-year-old mother of two.

“We have now charged a man with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon,” West Yorkshire Police Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen said in a statement. Mair was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, Wallen said.

Cox, a supporter of Britain staying in the EU, was shot and stabbed on Thursday by a man who witnesses said shouted “Britain first,” in her own electoral district near Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire in northern England.

Wallen said Cox “was attacked and sustained serious injuries from both a firearm and a knife and despite assistance from passers-by, the ambulance service and police officers who were quickly on the scene, she sadly died of her injuries.”