Police investigation underway outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
There is a large police presence outside of Drake’ Bridle Path mansion Tuesday morning.
The father of a man held for the fatal stabbing of a British lawmaker during a meeting with local voters has told British media that he was shocked and "traumatized" by his son's arrest, as police continued questioning the suspect under terrorism laws.
Harbi Ali Kullane, a former adviser to Somalia's prime minister, said British counter-terrorism police had visited him, according to the Sunday Times.
"I'm feeling very traumatized. It's not something that I expected or even dreamed of," he was quoted as saying.
British authorities have not released the name of the suspect in the killing of 69-year-old Conservative lawmaker David Amess Friday, but British media reported the suspect was Ali Harbi Ali, 25, believed to be a British citizen with Somali heritage.
Amess, a long-serving lawmaker, was stabbed multiple times during a regular meeting with his constituents at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, a town 40 miles (62 kilometers) east of London. The Metropolitan Police has described the attack as terrorism and said early investigations suggested "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism," without giving details.
Police have been granted extra time to question the suspect, who was arrested on suspicion of murder but has not yet been charged. The BBC and others reported that the suspect was referred to a government program aimed at preventing people from supporting extremism some years ago, but said he was not a formal subject of interest for security services.
It is unclear what, if any, the suspect's connection to Amess was and why he targeted the lawmaker. The meeting with voters was public and open to all.
In north London, police investigating the killing continued to search an apartment and another address, as officers stood guard outside.
Friday's killing renewed concern about the risks politicians run as they go about their work. The attack came five years after Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was killed by a far-right extremist in her constituency in West Yorkshire as she was on her way to a meeting with voters.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said Sunday that officials are reviewing security arrangements for lawmakers, and the measures being considered include police protection during regular meetings, known as "surgeries," between lawmakers and their constituents. Lawmakers could also be asked to share their whereabouts at all times with police, she said.
But Patel added that she did not believe that the killing of Amess should change the relationship between lawmakers and their voters.
"This should never, ever break that link between an elected representative and their democratic role, responsibility and duty to the people who elected them," she told Sky News on Sunday.
Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, said he was working closely with the Home Office and the police to identify ways to improve lawmakers' safety. But, like Patel, he said "we should not hide away."
"The very essence of being an MP (Member of Parliament) is to help and be seen by our constituents. They are the people who elected us to represent them, so surely making ourselves available to them is the cornerstone of our democracy?" Hoyle wrote in The Observer and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Many in the seaside town of Leigh-on-Sea have laid flowers in tribute to Amess, a father of five who has served in parliament since 1983 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015. Floral wreaths and balloons piled up outside the police cordon near the church where Amess was stabbed, and a church service in the town is planned for later Sunday.
The Council of Somali Organizations, which works with Somali communities across the U.K., condemned the killing, saying it was an "affront to all of our values and our democratic society itself."
The group's director, Kahiye Alim, said he believed that radicalization of young Somalis in Britain has not been a big concern. In recent years only a handful of people have gone from the U.K. to Somalia to join al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked extremist group, he said.
There is a large police presence outside of Drake’ Bridle Path mansion Tuesday morning.
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Three Indian nationals accused of murdering Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar are due to face court Tuesday over the killing that triggered a major diplomatic rift with India.
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife's edge.
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
Sure, she was a royal princess and all. But there’s no way Sleeping Beauty — either before or after her nap — ever had quite the fabulous wardrobe that’s been assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.