Teen charged with hate crime murder in fatal stabbing of dancer O’Shae Sibley

The 17-year-old accused of fatally stabbing Philadelphia native and former Philadanco student O’Shae Sibley at a New York gas station late last month has been indicted on the charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced Thursday.

The killing drew national attention because Sibley was gay, and the men who approached him allegedly had used gay slurs during the altercation.

Sibley, 28, was stabbed the night of July 29 while at a Mobil station in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood not far from where he lived. Sibley and his friends were playing music from a car and began voguing, a dance created and primarily performed by Black and Latinx LGBTQ people that imitates fashion models.

Sibley and his friends were allegedly targeted “because they were dancing, they were being themselves, dancing joyfully to Beyoncé music at a Brooklyn gas station, harming no one, and refusing to stop even when confronted with anti-Black and homophobic slurs demanding that they stop dancing,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said at a news briefing Thursday.

“Hate crimes impact a victim, but [they] also impact a community. It robs not just the family, but an entire community of the sense of safety and security,” Gonzalez said.

The teen, who turned himself in on Aug. 4, was indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury on Thursday and was expected to be arraigned in youth court on Friday. If convicted, the teen, whose identity has not been disclosed because he’s a juvenile, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison up to a maximum of life, Gonzalez said.

A North Philadelphia native, Sibley moved to New York before the coronavirus pandemic, hoping to find better dance opportunities in the city. As a young man, Sibley studied dance at famed Philadelphia Dance Company, or Philadanco, until just before his move to New York, founder Joan Myers Brown previously told The Inquirer.

Sibley’s funeral was held Tuesday at the historic Met Philadelphia theater.

“O’Shae came to New York to follow his dreams, like many New Yorkers. … He was here to shine a light on himself and really shine a light on this community in New York City,” Gonzalez said.

“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 this city,” Gonzalez said.