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, who announced yet another arrest in
the case Friday: a 42-year-old man seized on suspicion of supplying
illegal firearms.
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.
