Berliner Tageblatt - US VP Vance slams UK's 'enraging' handling of student murder

"Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit," Vance said on X.

"His murder is as tragic as it is enraging."

The case of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in the southern city of Southampton in December, has become highly politicized in the UK.

Digwa, 23, lied and told police he was the victim and that Nowak had racially insulted him.

Now President Donald Trump's administration is increasingly weighing in, with Vance, a long-term critic of European migration policies, becoming the highest-ranking US official to comment on the killing.

"He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it," Vance added.

"Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last."

The US State Department accused Britain of "two-tiered policing" in a statement on Thursday.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has also posted numerous times on the platform about the police response to the stabbing.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Musk on Thursday of "trying to whip up division" in Britain.

O.Krause--BTB