The Japan Times - 'I can't breathe': outrage, violence after UK police handcuff dying student

Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was heard repeatedly telling police "I can't breathe" in police bodycam footage captured as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members.

Far-right figures have seized on the case and firebrand Tommy Robinson spoke at a rally in the southern city of Southampton where the murder took place, claiming police treat white British people as "second-rate citizens".

Protesters then marched through the city centre towards the scene of the crime and attacked police blocking the road with stones, bottles and bins.

A judge on Monday jailed the killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death with a ceremonial knife with a 21-centimetre (eight-inch) blade.

When police arrived at the scene, Digwa lied to officers, telling them Nowak had racially insulted him and that he was the victim.

The footage, which was played during Digwa's trial, shows police accepting the aggressor's accusation, and rather than helping Nowak, initially handcuffing him despite his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

One officer can be heard asking Nowak: "You've been stabbed, whereabouts?" before adding: "Don't think you have, mate."

Moments later the student collapsed and became unconscious.

Speaking after Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak's father Mark described the police treatment of his son as "shocking".

He called Nowak's treatment "inhumane and degrading... his murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed."

The family gave permission for police to release the bodycam footage. The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that the bodycam footage was "harrowing" and called the investigation by the IOPC "absolutely right", acknowledging there are "serious questions for the police to answer".

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Tuesday urged people not to allow the murder to "turn communities against one another".

"We must condemn those who seek personal political profit from tragedy," she said in parliament.

Main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for changes to police diversity policies.

Farage said: "We're living in a two-tier culture... where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities."

Badenoch accused Farage of "deepening divisions" but also took aim at so-called "two-tier policing" in which officers allegedly deal with ethnic minorities more leniently.

- 'Two-tier scum' -

On Tuesday evening, more than a thousand protesters gathered outside the main police station in Southampton, chanting "two tier scum" and "shame on you!" and waving British Union Jack and England flags, AFP reporters saw.

Far-right leader Robinson told the crowd that "if Henry (Nowak) wasn't white he wouldn't have been handcuffed" and that "as white people we are treated as second-rate citizens by our own police force".

Protesters, some wearing masks, then marched to the residential area where the crime took place and attacked a line of police wearing helmets and carrying riot shields, chanting "scum".

American tech tycoon Elon Musk has posted on X an offer to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder.

Digwa appeared in court again Tuesday with his brother, Gurpreet Digwa, 27, and his father, Moga Singh, 52, on weapons offences.

All three face charges of possession of offensive weapons including a flick knife, an extendable baton, knuckledusters, a machete, and swords. Digwa's brother and father were granted bail until the next hearing in July.

Digwa's family apologised to Nowak's family for the killing and for bringing the Sikh community into "disrepute".

The convicted killer's mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, will be sentenced on July 17 for assisting an offender by taking the knife back to the family home.

M.Sugiyama--JT