‘I can’t breathe’: UK police face backlash for handcuffing a dying Henry Nowak over killer’s racism claim
2 min readUpdated: Jun 3, 2026 09:12 AM IST
UK police are facing severe public backlash over their handling of a stabbing case involving an 18-year-old student Henry Nowak.
Nowak was handcuffed by cops as he lay dying from stab wounds, following a knife attack in the southern England city of Southampton last December.
The attacker, identified as Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday (Jun 1). He, according to news agency Reuters, falsely claimed that Nowak had assaulted him.
The British police initially acted on Digwa’s allegations and restrained the seriously injured teenager.
‘I can’t breathe’
The police bodycam footage showed Nowak lying on the street saying, “I’ve been stabbed” and “I can’t breathe,” as an officer replies, “I don’t think you have, mate.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasised that the case raised “serious questions,” including how “allegations of racism informed or fed into the decision-making in that particular case.”
“It is impossible to watch that footage and not appreciate that those questions absolutely have to be answered,” the UK PM told reporters.
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People, on Tuesday (Jun 2), took to streets and chanted “I can’t breathe” outside the Southampton police station.
Nowak’s family sharply criticized law enforcement, labeling the police’s treatment of their dying son as “inhumane and degrading.”
Speaking outside the court, Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak said, “Henry did not die with dignity. He did not die with the care he deserved. We hold Vickrum Digwa solely and 100% responsible for the brutal murder of our son. But Henry should not have died on the streets of Southampton in police custody. The way he was treated was inhumane and degrading.”
“We are calling on the government to treat knife crime as the national emergency that it is,” he added.
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