SHOT, STABBED AND KICKED
Witnesses tell how MP’s killer looked full of rage as he launched his savage attack in broad daylight
JO Cox’s killer looked full of rage as he shot her repeatedly at close range, witnesses said last night.
He punched and kicked the 41-year-old mother-of-two to the ground before stabbing her with a hunting knife.
When bystanders attempted to intervene he pulled out a sawn-off shotgun and fired three times from just yards away.
One man said the killer deliberately moved in to finish off the MP, firing a final shot to ‘the head area’ in a horrific attack that lasted up to 15 minutes.
A 77-year-old passer-by who tried to save the MP was stabbed in the stomach.
Doctors said last night that he was expected to make a full recovery.
When police arrived they discovered a bloody scene of horror, with the MP dying on the ground in a pool of blood.
Mrs Cox was attacked in Market Street in the West Yorkshire town of Birstall, a short distance from the library where she held a regular constituency surgery.
As she walked to the building shortly before 1pm, she was confronted by a man wearing a baseball cap.
Clarke Rothwell, 42, who runs a nearby cafe, said he suddenly heard a ‘popping sound’ and turned around to find the gunman standing over her.
‘He seemed to have what looked like an old gun – like a musket – in his hand and he shot her again in the middle,’ he said. ‘He then seemed to shoot a third time, towards her head or face.’
Mr Rothwell said the knife the attacker had used to stab Mrs Cox was ‘like a hunting knife, about a foot long’. He added: ‘He was stabbing her and waving the knife around.
‘A man who I know ... tried to get near but the man swung his knife around and caught him in the stomach. Blood started coming out.’
Mr Rothwell said his friend ‘tried to grab him, wrestling with him,’ but the killer lunged at the MP ‘half a dozen times’ with the knife.
He said the sound of the gunshots sparked pandemonium, with people ‘ screaming and running from the area’.
He also described how the gunman began yelling. ‘He was shouting “put Britain first”,’ Mr Rothwell said. ‘ He shouted it about two or three times. He said it before he shot her and after he shot her. Three times she was shot, the initial time – then she dropped to the floor – and two more times. The third time he got close proximity. He shot her round the head area.’
Mr Rothwell said he attempted to follow the attacker in his van and saw him dump his jacket on the ground, possibly in an attempt to change his appearance.
Local restaurant owner Hichem Ben Abdallah, 56, saw Mrs Cox lying on the ground between two parked cars.
He added: ‘I saw a man wrestling with a guy with a baseball cap, trying to restrain him, but he shrugged him off. All of a sudden he started shouting and he pulled a gun from his bag. It looked like an old shotgun, maybe with a shortened barrel, the size of a cucumber. Then he fired and three or four seconds later he fired again. Bang, bang.
‘At the first shot everyone ran, but then the adrenaline kicked in and we went closer again.
‘He then just calmly walked away down the street.’
Mr Abdallah, who had been in a cafe beside the library, said the killer looked like he was in a ‘rage’ as he pulled the trigger.
Describing the gun as looking ‘hand made’, he added: ‘She was a standing-still target for him when he shot her.
‘The man stepped back with the gun and fired it and then he fired a second shot.
‘As he was firing he was looking down at the ground.
‘She was sat on the floor and looked like she was on the beach, her hair was roughed up, her face and legs were bloody.’
Mr Abdallah said the MP appeared to be unconscious. Car-wash worker Karman Kinder said he saw her lying on the ground as a woman standing beside her screamed: ‘Oh Jo! Oh Jo!’
He said there was a man lying on the floor nearby who looked as if he had been injured.
Mr Kinder added that he saw the gunman rushing away seconds after the shots were fired.
‘As I went up the road there was a guy on the other side, hurrying down the street. He looked old and had his face down and then I saw he was holding a gun in his hand,’ he said.
‘Other people were chasing him and he disappeared into a side street. It was terrifying.’
Passers-by immediately tended to the stricken MP and police and paramedics were on the scene within minutes.
Witnesses feared the worst as paramedics performed CPR on Mrs Cox for up to 15 minutes before she
‘He seemed to shoot towards her face’
was airlifted to hospital. As a manhunt was launched for the killer, local shops and a primary school just 50 yards away from the scene of the attack were immediately put on ‘lockdown’, with no one allowed in or out.
However, shortly afterwards, two police officers arrested the suspect.
He did not try to resist, and photographs showed him sprawled on the road with officers standing over him and what appeared to be trail of blood by his arm.