Particular person in reference to dancer’s stabbing dying at Brooklyn gasoline station is in custody, police say

NEW YORK — Police have an individual in custody in reference to the dying of O’Shae Sibley, a homosexual man who was fatally stabbed after a confrontation between a gaggle of pals dancing to a Beyoncé tune and a number of other younger males who taunted them, authorities mentioned Friday.

The New York Metropolis Police Division declined to right away determine the particular person or say what legal expenses they’d face, if any, describing them solely as a “particular person of curiosity.”

Sibley, a 28-year-old skilled dancer, died July 29 after being stabbed within the torso at a Brooklyn gasoline station. His dying outraged New York Metropolis’s LGBTQ+ group and drew tributes from celebrities together with Beyoncé and Spike Lee.

Sibley was at a Mobil station with pals getting gasoline, listening to music and dancing shirtless on a sizzling night time once they have been heckled by a gaggle of younger males. One witness, Summy Ullah, mentioned in interviews that the lads complained that their conduct offended them as Muslims.

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

On the video, Sibley could possibly be seen following the 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, then collapses to the sidewalk.

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

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.

Mayor Eric Adams has promised “justice for O’Shae’s household and family members.”

“O’Shae Sibley’s life and delightful spirit have been lower quick by homophobia,” Adams mentioned in a message posted on social media Tuesday. “Bigotry can by no means take root in our metropolis.”