NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: A 17-year-old high school student has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of O'Shae Sibley during an altercation between two groups at a New York City gas station. Sibley, a 28-year-old gay man and a professional dancer, was returning to his Brooklyn home with four friends on July 29 when they stopped at a gas station in the Midwood neighborhood.
Authorities noted that while filling up their car, the group of friends played Beyonce’s 'Renaissance' and began dancing. That’s when a group of men approached and asked them to stop. The men then started hurling homophobic slurs and racist remarks at Sibley and his friends. When witnesses intervened as "peacemakers," the men yelling at the dancer began to disperse. The situation seemed like it was under control when one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed Sibley in the torso. “This encounter lasts for approximately four minutes when the victim and the known perpetrator come together. This perpetrator retreats away from Mr. Sibley while striking him one time with a sharp object, piercing his chest and damaging his heart,” Joseph Kenny, an assistant chief at the New York Police Department’s detective bureau, said at a news conference.
Who killed O’Shae Sibley?
A witness noted that the suspect then jumped into a Toyota Highlander and fled the scene as Sibley fell on the sidewalk. He was then rushed to the Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead that same night. The officials identified the suspect with the help of harrowing footage of the incident. Kenny noted that the teenager turned himself in through an arrangement with his lawyer on Friday, August 4. He has since been charged with second-degree murder, which has been charged as a hate crime, and with criminal possession of a weapon.
Kenny refused to reveal the perp's identity but stated that he was from Brooklyn and attended a high school nearby, according to CNN. Speaking at the press conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams described the stabbing as “something that was clearly a hate crime.” “This is a city where you are free to express yourself, and that expression should never end with any form of violence,” Adams said, adding, “You have a lot of anti-gay statements and a lot of derogatory statements being made – anti-Black – from the group and from the defendant himself.” Many people took to the streets to grieve Sibley’s tragic death.
'Just a ball of light'
On Wednesday, August 2, Beyonce paid a moving tribute to Sibley with a message about his death on her official website. “REST IN POWER O’SHAE SIBLEY,” the 41-year-old superstar’s website read. Several other celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen DeGeneres, also paid tribute to Sibley. On Saturday, August 5, mourners gathered at Pier 46 for hours remembering Sibley through what he did best -- dance. It came after a heartfelt memorial for the beloved son, brother and friend. "Just a ball of light. Just like he was. I want him to be remembered just the way he was," Sibley's father, Jake Kelly, said. Sibley's younger twin sisters are planning to start an organization in their brother's honor. "I can't wait to go to trial because my brother didn't deserve this," Sibley's sister, Destineh, told CBS.