Suspect Charged With Hate Crime in Murder of O’Shae Sibley

metroweekly.com:

CBS New York.Sibley, a 28-year-old professional dancer, was dancing and voguing with friends to a Beyoncé song at a gas station while filling up their car in the late evening hours of July 30.

Sibley and his friends were wearing swimsuits, having taken a day trip to the Jersey Shore earlier.One member of the group was wearing a tight-fitting and short-cut bathing suit, which attracted negative attention from onlookers.Members of that group, including the alleged assailant, confronted Sibley and his friends, yelling anti-gay and anti-Black slurs during an initial confrontation, according to Joseph Kenny, the assistant chief of the New York Police Department’s detective bureau, who spoke at a Saturday news conference.The groups dispersed temporarily, but then re-engaged after further comments from the assailant and others.Members of Sibley’s group sought to defend themselves, getting into a scuffle with the alleged assailant, who brandished a weapon and stabbed Sibley once in the torso.

Despite the efforts of Sibley’s friends to control the bleeding, Sibley was transported to Maimonides Medical Center and later pronounced dead.The stabbing drew immediate condemnation from city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke at the Saturday news conference.“This is a city where you are free to express yourself, and that expression should never end with any form of violence,” Adams said. “We’re going to create an environment where the city is safe and one should be allowed to dance, to express themselves, to dress the way they want.”Adams added that the attack was “something clearly that was a hate crime,” but contested “the impression that it came from hate from the Muslim community towards the LGBTQ+ community” — an.