British attacker was investigated for extremism
Authorities identify a 52-year-old Briton as the terrorist who carried out an attack outside Parliament, saying he once was investigated for extremism — but was not on a watch list.
LONDON — Authorities on Thursday identified a 52-year-old Briton as the man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman to death outside Parliament in London, saying he had a long criminal record and once was investigated for extremism — but was not on a terrorism watch list.
As millions of Londoners returned to work a day after a rampage that killed four victims and injured at least 30, British Prime Minister Theresa May had a message for other attackers: “We are not afraid.”
“Today we meet as normal — as generations have done before us, and as future generations will continue to do,” she said to lawmakers’ cheers in the House of Commons.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, which police said was carried out by Khalid Masood, a U.K.-born resident of the West Midlands in central England. Masood plowed a rented SUV into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge, killing an American man and a British woman and injuring more than 30 people of almost a dozen nationalities. He then fatally stabbed a policeman inside the gates of Parliament before being shot to death by an officer.
American killed
A 75-year-old victim on the bridge died late Thursday of his wounds, police said.
The dead were identified as Kurt Cochran, 54, of Utah and British school administrator Aysha Frade, 43 — both struck on the bridge — and Constable Keith Palmer, 48, a 15-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police. The 75-year-old victim was not identified.
Police arrested eight people — three women and five men — on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts as authorities sought Masood’s motive and possible support network. One arrest was in London; the others were in Birmingham. Police said they were searching properties in Birmingham, London and Wales.
Masood’s convictions between 1983 and 2003 included assault, weapons possession and public order offenses, police said.
Many suspects in British terrorist attacks and plots have had roots in Birmingham, England’s second-largest city, and several local mosques have been linked to extremist clerics.
The victims were from 11 countries. They included 12 Britons, four South Koreans, three French, two Romanians, two Greeks, two Irish, two Americans and one each from Germany, Poland, China and Italy.
Silent vigil held
Cochran, who was visiting London with his wife, Melissa, for their 25th anniversary, was listed among the dead by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His wife was seriously injured and hospitalized.
As dusk fell, a silent vigil was held by several thousand people in London’s Trafalgar Square, where the bells of Big Ben could be heard in the distance.
“Those evil and tortured individuals who try to destroy our shared way of life will never succeed,” Mayor Sadiq Khan told the crowd.