People and soldiers gather Sunday outside the Royal Artillery Barracks, near where British soldier Lee Rigby was killed May 22.
Attackers killed Lee
Rigby a couple of hundred yards away from the Royal Artillery Barracks
in the southeast London district of Woolwich.
"We would like to
emphasize that Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to
carry out attacks against others," the family said in a statement
issued Friday by the Ministry of Defence.
The killing has sparked
an intense investigation by police. They announced two other arrests in
the case Friday, of men seized on suspicion of supplying illegal
firearms. Authorities also moved a man arrested on the suspicion of
killing Rigby from a hospital to a police station.
Rigby was run over by a car and then stabbed in a daylight attack on May 22.
Since the killing, anti-Muslim actions and angry social media sentiment have emerged in Britain.
But the family stressed
that "it would not wish any other families to go through this harrowing
experience and appeal to everyone to keep calm and show their respect in
a peaceful manner."
Rigby -- who had served
as an infantryman in Afghanistan and Cyprus -- "loved life and he loved
people," the family statement said.
"He had many friends from
different walks of life -- some with different religious beliefs and
cultures. But this made no difference to Lee. He always treated others
with the greatest of respect," the family said.
The death has been
"devastating," and the family is grateful for the public's "overwhelming
support," in Britain and all over the world, the statement said.
"We have been amazed by
the messages of support we have received from all across the globe. We
were deeply touched after visiting Woolwich on Sunday and would like to
thank those who were in attendance for giving us the time and space to
pay our own tributes to our beloved Lee."
The statement came as
Queen Elizabeth II on Friday visited the barracks that housed Rigby --
who worked as a military recruiter as well as a ceremonial drummer. A
makeshift memorial of flowers and tributes has swelled on the street
outside the barracks in the days since his death.
The monarch met members
of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery during the visit, which was
scheduled before the killing. The troop's duties include firing gun
salutes on state occasions and royal anniversaries.
"The queen privately met
those who coordinated the barracks response last week to the death of
Drummer Lee Rigby," Buckingham Palace said in a written statement.
An inquest into Rigby's death opened Friday at Southwark Coroner's Court and was quickly adjourned.
Detective Chief
Inspector Grant Mallon, the senior investigating officer into the death,
detailed the circumstances of Rigby's killing:
After working a day at
the Tower of London, Rigby was returning to his barracks in Woolwich
when a vehicle swerved and struck him. Two men came out of the vehicle
and attacked him with cleavers causing him "extensive and serious
injuries." The two men moved his "apparently lifeless body" and remained
on the scene until police arrived, when "both were incapacitated and
detained."
In all, 12 people have been arrested in connection with the killing.
• Michael Adebowale, 22,
has been charged with murder and with unlawful possession of a firearm.
He was discharged from a hospital Tuesday and has been held in custody
since at a police station. He made an initial court appearance Thursday.
• A 28-year-old arrested
on the suspicion of Rigby's murder is in custody at a south London
police station. The man has been identified by family, friends and
acquaintances as Michael Adebolajo. He was discharged from a hospital
Friday and transferred to the police station. Police said he was
"further arrested" at the station on the suspicion of the attempted
murder of a police officer, but didn't provide detail on that charge.
• Two men, ages 42 and
46, have been taken to a south London police station. One was arrested
Friday in north London and the other in east London on suspicion of
supplying illegal firearms.
• Six others have been
freed on bail -- the most recent a 50-year-old man arrested Monday night
on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
• Two were released without charges.
Separately, a man who
was arrested after he spoke in an interview about Adebolajo on BBC's
"Newsnight" has been charged with two counts of dissemination of
terrorist publications and one count of encouragement of terrorism. He
is Ibrahim Abdullah-Hassan, also known as Abu Nusaybah. The charges are
not connected to the Rigby murder investigation, police said.
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