New York City high school student charged with hate-motivated murder in killing of gay dancer

NEW YORK — Police have arrested a 17-year-old highschool scholar on a hate-motivated homicide cost within the deadly stabbing of an expert dancer throughout an altercation between two teams of pals at a New York Metropolis fuel station final weekend.

Police took {the teenager} into custody Friday in reference to the killing of the 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, who was homosexual. Authorities declined to launch the defendant’s title.

“Dad and mom misplaced a toddler, a toddler, to one thing that was clearly a hate crime,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, stated Saturday throughout a information convention outdoors the Brooklyn fuel station the place Sibley was killed July 29.

The stabbing occurred after the 2 teams acquired right into a confrontation at one of many fuel pumps, the place Sibley was dancing along with his pals to a Beyoncé tune. Authorities stated Sibley’s group was being taunted by the opposite group earlier than the confrontation led to violence.

Beyoncé would later pay tribute to Sibley on her web site.

Safety digital camera video confirmed the 2 teams arguing for a couple of minutes. Either side had walked away when Sibley and a buddy abruptly returned and once more confronted one of many younger males, who had stayed behind recording on his telephone.

Within the video, Sibley could possibly be seen following the teenager after which lunging at him earlier than the 2 disappeared out of the digital camera’s view. A second later, he walks backward into view, checking his aspect, after which collapses to the sidewalk.

Lee Soulja Simmons, the chief director for the NYC Middle for Black Satisfaction, additionally spoke on the information convention.

“We wrestle with individuals inside our neighborhood always going through discrimination — not simply since you’re Black however since you characterize LGBT” communities, he stated.

“The truth that he was doing nothing extra however voguing and dancing right here, he didn’t should die in that approach,” Simmons stated.

One in all Sibley’s pals who was there, Otis Pena, stated in a Fb video that Sibley was killed as a result of he was homosexual, and “as a result of he stood up for his pals.”

One witness, Summy Ullah, stated in interviews that the boys complained that their habits offended them as Muslims.

Some leaders of the realm’s Muslim neighborhood condemned the slaying.

“The burden of this loss is felt deeply, not simply by the household and pals of O’Shae, however by all of us who worth life, peace and justice,” Soniya Ali, the chief director of the Muslim Neighborhood Middle, stated Saturday.

“As Muslims, we’re dedicated to face up for justice, even when it means standing in opposition to our personal selves,” she stated. “We unequivocally condemn the unjust homicide of O’Shae.”

Sibley carried out with the dance firm Philadanco in his native Philadelphia and in New York, the place he took lessons with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension program.