Sibley, a 28-year-old dancer, was stabbed to death after an altercation at a gas station. A 17-year-old suspect has been taken into custody and is facing charges of second-degree murder and committing a hate crime.
O’Shae Sibley, a 28-year-old dancer, was stabbed to death at a Brooklyn gas station on Saturday, July 29, after an altercation between his friends and a group of men who objected to the way Sibley was dancing. A 17-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with committing a hate crime. Here’s what we know so far.
What happened
The New York Daily News reports that Sibley, who was gay, stopped at a Mobil gas station in Midwood on Saturday evening around 11 p.m. along with some friends. While someone in the group filled up the car, Sibley reportedly played Beyoncé’s latest album, Renaissance, and danced to the music. Multiple reports say Sibley was voguing, a style of dance popularized by the LGBTQ+ ballroom scene.
A group of men at the station then reportedly confronted Sibley and his friends, telling them to stop dancing and allegedly hurling homophobic slurs at them.
Initial reports suggested that the suspect was Muslim and committed the crime because the dancing was offensive to his faith. But those reports have since been proven to be false; the suspect is, in fact, a Christian.
Surveillance video shows the two groups in a heated argument. According to witnesses, one person intervened and attempted to break up the altercation. Sibley was seen face-to-face with one of the individuals in the group, after which they began scuffling. The suspect then stabbed Sibley in the chest, per ABC 7. The suspect fled the scene and is still on the loose. Sibley was taken to Maimonides Medical Center but was pronounced dead. The NYPD is officially investigating the stabbing as a hate crime.
Who was O’Shae Sibley?
Sibley was a Philadelphia native who moved to New York City in 2019 to pursue a career in dance. In between auditions, he worked odd jobs as a waiter or doing deliveries, according to the New York Times, and intended to audition for The Lion King this year. Prior to his move, he was a member of the Philadelphia Dance Company also known as Philadanco, a renowned modern-dance company in the city.
Joan Myers Brown, the founder of Philadanco, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that she first met Sibley when he was 14 and that he was teased in his neighborhood for his interest in dance. Though Sibley left the company for New York in his early 20s, he kept in contact with Brown. “He called me every week to say, ‘Hey JB, or Hey, Aunt Joan, and he would tell me about his auditions,” she said.
The New York Post reports that he took part in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s extension program and a 2022 visual project commissioned by Lincoln Center titled “An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time.
