Man Fatally Stabbed For Dancing At Brooklyn Gas Station - NYPD Investigating As Anti-Gay Hate Crime

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

A professional dancer who performed as part of an all-queer dance troupe was stabbed to death over the weekend at a gas station in Brooklyn. And now, his friends are sounding the alarm that he was attacked because of his sexual orientation.

O’Shae Sibley, who was gay, was murdered at about 11 p.m. local time on Saturday night at a Mobil gas station in the Midwood area of Brooklyn. The 28-year-old man and his friends were returning home from an outing to a New Jersey beach that day when they stopped to get gas, and an altercation erupted.

According to multiple media reports, while one friend filled up the car with gas, the others started dancing and enjoying the end of their long day at the beach. That dancing — which the group was doing shirtless and barefoot, according to security camera footage from the gas station — caught the attention of a group of men standing nearby.

Sibley’s friend Otis Pena recalled in a livestream video on social media just how close the men were to home when the incident occurred:

“Let’s just get gas right here. Two blocks from my house and they murdered him. They murdered him. They murdered him.”

Per the New York Daily News, the other group of men “identified themselves as Muslims” and reportedly became “especially offended by the small tight trunks” one of Sibley’s friends was wearing.

Witness Summy Ullah told that outlet:

“This guy was dancing in underwear and the suspect was like, ‘why are dancing in your underwear?'”

As tensions escalated, Pena claimed the suspected killer began recording Sibley and his friends on his phone. Then, the mourning friend said in his livestream, the incident turned deadly after Sibley’s sexual orientation came to the forefront.

According to Pena, Sibley said this to the men before the stabbing:

“He said, ‘we may be gay and we’re listening to our music — but it’s no hate. It’s all love.'”

Pena recalled how the alleged attacker didn’t care for that. According to the New York Daily News, the man recording the group of beachgoers then walked off, at which point Sibley chased after him. Then, per security camera footage seen by that outlet, Sibley appears to get stabbed.

Mourning the loss of his friend, Pena said:

“Y’all stabbed my brother in the chest saying, ‘we Muslim, we don’t let gay s**t around here.’ We’re gay. We’re just here. It’s no animosity.”

He continued:

“You stabbed my brother and I seen him wobbling. I had to run to him and hold his wound as blood is dripping on my hands. And his blood is my clothes. Just because he is trying to let people know that we’re gay, we exist, we don’t disrespect. You all killed him.”

Paramedics were called to the scene, and they responded in minutes. Once there, they rushed Sibley to Maimonides Medical Center, but he was pronounced dead from a stab wound to the “upper body,” per reports.

Now, per the Daily News, NYPD detectives “believe they have identified the stabber” as a “teenager who works in the area.” But as of Monday evening, they had not yet apprehended him.

As for the ongoing investigation, New York Governor Kathy Hochul indicated in a social media release on Monday that the NYPD is already looking into the murder as a hate crime:

“Let me be clear: Discrimination, hate, and violence have no place in our state. The NYPD is investigating this horrific killing as a hate crime, and our Hate Crimes Task Force is ready to provide any support they need.”

Lamenting the loss of his loved one, Pena added:

“That’s all I had, bro. He didn’t deserve this. He was a beacon of light…We may be gay, but we exist. We’re not going to live in fear. We’re not going to live hiding.”

Here is more on this terrible situation (below):

Such an awful event. And the apparent hateful rhetoric and attitudes leading up to it, too. We send our condolences to Sibley’s family, friends, and loved ones.

To learn more about how you can help the LGBTQ+ community, check out https://www.glaad.org/.

[Image via Eyewitness News ABC 7/YouTube]