Elon Musk has offered to fund a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of British university student Henry Nowak, who died after being handcuffed by police officers despite having been stabbed by a Sikh man in Southampton, England, last year.
‘This poor boy was running away from someone who stabbed him & stole his phone, but the police in the UK attacked him instead of his murderer!’ Musk wrote while reposting a video of Nowak filmed shortly before the street altercation that ultimately and tragically ended his life.
The 18-year-old student’s story has sparked outrage across right-wing social media since last week because of what many described as the absurdity of the circumstances surrounding his death. According to details presented during the ongoing murder trial at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak—a first-year accountancy and finance student—was allegedly stabbed by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa during a violent altercation in Southampton’s Portswood district on 3 December 2025. Prosecutors stated that Digwa used an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial knife, known as a kirpan or shastar.
This poor boy was running away from someone who stabbed him & stole his phone, but the police in the UK attacked him instead of his murderer! https://t.co/SwnHHYec1d
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2026
After being stabbed, Nowak reportedly attempted to flee while bleeding heavily, but prosecutors said Digwa ‘aggressively pursued’ him through the street until police officers arrived. According to the prosecution, officers then restrained and handcuffed the visibly injured teenager after the suspect claimed he had been racially abused. Shortly afterwards, Nowak collapsed and later died at the scene.
Digwa denies murder and claims self-defence. Prosecutors have also accused his mother, Kiran Kaur, of removing the knife from the scene following the stabbing, an allegation she denies.
The officers involved quickly came under fire after details of the incident emerged last week, with many accusing police of serious misconduct and ‘two-tier policing’. Outrage spread rapidly across X and Reddit, where users questioned why a visibly bleeding teenager had been restrained instead of immediately treated as a victim. ‘Who handcuffs a man bleeding out?’ one commenter wrote, while others demanded an independent investigation into the officers’ actions.
Critics also pointed to what they described as the absurdity of police prioritizing allegations of racial abuse made by the suspect over Nowak’s visible injuries. Reform UK politician Robert Jenrick described the incident as ‘a damning indictment of modern policing’, while right-wing activist Tommy Robinson called the case proof of what he described as ‘institutional cowardice’ within British policing.
Hampshire Police has yet to issue a public statement addressing the growing outrage and criticism surrounding the case.
Mainstream media outlets and politicians have also come under heavy criticism for their limited coverage of—or silence regarding—Nowak’s death. Critics pointed to what they described as a double standard, comparing the case to the death of George Floyd in the United States, which triggered months of protests and violent riots across America and, on a smaller scale, in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Many commentators argued that if the circumstances surrounding Nowak’s death had involved different ethnic or political dynamics, the public and media reaction would likely have been far more intense.
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