Teen charged with murder, hate crime in stabbing of gay man in NYC, police say

A 17-year-old boy was charged with murder and a hate crime in the killing of 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, a gay man who was stabbed to death while dancing at a Brooklyn gas station last weekend, New York City authorities said Saturday.

Video showed that the teen, who was part of a group that allegedly harassed Sibley and his friends at the gas station on July 29, used homophobic and anti-Black slurs as he demanded that Sibley’s group stop dancing, New York City Police Department Assistant Chief Joe Kenny said.

After “a heated verbal dispute,” the teen stabbed Sibley once in the chest, hitting his heart, Kenny said. The teen then fled in his car, Kenny said at a news briefing Saturday at the Mobil gas station where the stabbing occurred.

The teenager lives in Brooklyn and is a high school student. Authorities identified him with help from the public, and he surrendered to police on Friday, they said.

He is the only person who authorities expect to charge in the killing, Kenny said. He indicated that the teen, who was not identified because he is a minor, had retained a lawyer.

The killing shook members of the LGBTQ+ community and made national news at a time when gay and transgender rights have been targeted by conservative state legislatures, and while LGBTQ+ people have faced a swell of hate crimes and harassment.

Last year, five people were killed and others were injured after a man opened fire in a Colorado gay bar. Survivors of that attack later told Congress that the extremist rhetoric targeting their community was leading to violence against Americans in LGBTQ+ communities.

“We wrestle with this death. We wrestle with hate crimes. We wrestle with people within our community constantly facing discrimination,” Lee Soulja-Simmons, executive director of the NYC Center for Black Pride, said at the news conference.

Mayor Eric Adams (D) denounced the attack, saying Sibley “could be my son.”

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Sibley was a professional dancer and choreographer who has been remembered by friends as a joyful, spirited and proud young man. He was a member of New York City’s house and ballroom community and was “an amazing dancer,” said Soulja-Simmons, who first met Sibley in 2017.

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Sibley and his friends were on their way home from New Jersey when they stopped at the Mobil station in Brooklyn. While waiting for their tank to fill, they danced to Beyoncé music playing from their car, Kenny said.

In the video footage, the teen calls out to Sibley’s group, “demanding that they stop dancing,” Kenny said. “They call him derogatory names and use homophobic slurs against him. They also made anti-Black statements, all while demanding that they simply stop dancing.”

The others in the teen’s group began to disperse, Kenny said, but the teen stayed and assaulted Sibley. On Friday evening, people gathered in Sibley’s honor at the gas station, where members of the ballroom community danced, Soulja-Simmons said. Young people’s human and civil rights are at stake, he said, so they rallied against the racism and discrimination they face.

“They came here to say, ‘We’re here, you’re not going to get rid of us, we’re not going to be afraid, we’re not going to hide in the shadows,’” Soulja-Simmons said.