O’Shae Sibley.Photo:Sage O.Dumure Versailles/Facebook
Sage O.Dumure Versailles/Facebook
Dmitriy Popov, 17, was charged last week with murder as a hate crime in the stabbing death of dancerO’Shae Sibley, who was killed at a Brooklyn gas station last month after he and his friends were berated with racist, homophobic slurs while voguing toBeyoncé’s “Renaissance” album.
Returning from a birthday celebration at the beach, Sibley and four of his friends stopped at a Mobil gas station on Coney Island Avenue in Midwood shortly after 11 p.m. July 29, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s office anda friend on the scene.
“Get that gay s–t out of here,” one of the men said, according to prosecutors.
“You don’t know us, we’re just having a good time and enjoying our lives,” Sibley told the men, trying to de-escalate the situation. “It’s all respect, we’re allowed to be here just like you.”
Sibley stumbled, falling into the arms of Otis Peña, whose birthday Sibley and his friends were celebrating, Peñasaid in a Facebook video recorded hours after Sibley’s death. Peña recalled holding his friend’s wound as blood soaked his hands and clothes. Saying he had lost “the one thing I had closest to my heart,” he said his friend had died “[just] because he’s trying to let people know that we’re gay, we exist, we don’t disrespect.”
Sibley was pronounced dead at Maimonides Medical Center soon after, prosecutors say.
O’Shae Sibley.gofundme
gofundme
“We as a community don’t deserve this,” Peña said in the video, adding: “We’re not going to live in fear. We’re not going to live in hiding. Because everybody knows me and O’Shae, we were always out and loud.”
Popov, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, was arraigned in youth court Friday morning, charged as a juvenile offender in Sibley’s death. The juvenile offender status,reserved for minors charged with the most serious crimes, enables the district attorney’s office to treat the 17-year-old similarly to an adult defendant.
Popov pleaded not guilty on Friday, Yaniv confirms to PEOPLE.
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Among such legislation being considered and recently passed:curbing gender-affirming health care,restricting transgender students from playing sports according to their gender identityandforbidding people from using bathrooms that conform to their gender identity.
Five people within the LGBTQ community were killed in the weeks around Sibley’s homicide, according to Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a New York organization measuring hate crimes against LGBTQ people, which noted “a disturbing rise in violence and harassment,” across the U.S.in a statementabout Sibley’s killing: “This cannot continue. No one should have to fear for their safety just for being themselves.”
Sibley moved from Philadelphia to New York around the start of the pandemic to pursue a career as a dancer and choreographer. At the time of his death, Sibley was dancing withAiley Extension, an off-shoot of the prestigious modern dance group,Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, according to the program.
“He was here to shine a light on himself and really shine a light on this community and New York City, and his light was shut off,” Gonzalez said Thursday. “He was killed for senseless reasons – reasons that I think have to be addressed: this intolerance that we have in our country, and in our city of people who are different than ourselves is something that we have to make sure can never stand in the city.”
Sibley’s killing garnered national attention as lawmakers andBeyoncé herself spoke out against the alleged hate crime. In the days after his death, the singing icon’s official website opened on the words “REST IN POWER O’SHAE SIBLEY” the white text on an all-black background.
“He had big dreams for life,” Sibley’s aunt, Tondra Sibleypreviously told PEOPLE, recalling one conversation when: “O’Shae said ‘I’m going to be famous.’” Reflecting on the attention surrounding his death, she said: “I’m like, ‘shoot he probably is at this point,’ but he didn’t mean this way.”
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Craig Walker ordered Popov held without bail Friday. He is being held at an undisclosed jail, which is confidential under state law. His next court date is October 10.
source: people.com
