by ROSA LOCICERO Staff Writer
In London, police charged Michael Adebowale on Wednesday, May 29 with murdering British soldier Lee Rigby. The murder is suspected to have been an Islamic extremist attack, and was done during the day on a crowded street.
Twenty-two-year-old Adebowale will appear in court on Thursday, according to police. He is one out of two people suspected to be the murderer of Rigby, who was stabbed to death in the middle of the street. In gruesome pictures of the incident, there are two men shown attacking Rigby with knives and meat cleavers. Both men were shot and wounded.
Said Freshman Isamary Ochoa, “All of this just goes to show how cruel some people can be, because they killed another human being with no mercy in such a disgusting way, that it took cops wounding them to get them to stop what they were doing.”
The second suspect, Michael Adebolajo, is still in the hospital and is under stable condition. However, Adebowale was released and was then taken into custody Tuesday, May 28.
Witnesses who had spoken to police said they saw Rigby get hit by a car, and then attacked by the two men. Adebolajo can be seen in videos right after the attack, bloodied and holding his weapon, bragging about the attack on Rigby and ranting against the government.
The attack has left people wondering if Britain’s intelligence services could have done anything to prevent the murder. The only response officials have given is that they had known of the two main suspects for a while, as they have been part of previous investigations.
Freshman Dania Perret said, “I thinks the attack is so terrible. I feel bad for Lee Rigby because he didn’t do anything wrong, but I also feel bad for his family who has to deal with his death and know that he was killed brutally for no reason. It’s also really terrible that the murderers are in videos bragging about how they killed him.”
The murder has brought racism to parts in England, with different groups moving to protest. A group with strong anti-Islam tendencies, known as the English Defense League, has had many protests and Muslim community organizations have reported a huge growth in attacks and harassment.
Things have gone as far as one mosque in the northern part of England, in the town of Grimsby, being firebombed and the word “Islam” written in red letters on the Royal Air Force Bomber Command memorial. Only two people have been charged with the attack on the mosque, but no one has been yet held responsible for the writing on the memorial.
To make matters worse, among all the chaos, British officers have been warned to be on the lookout for hostage drama that is blamed on extremist Muslim inmates.
Freshman Amber Lee said, “The saddest part about everything is what happened after the attack. Not only does the family have to deal with the loss of a family member, but now there are a lot of attacks on different races that are getting so out of hand. I hope the murderers get their deserved punishment.”
What do you think should happen to the attackers?