O’Shae Sibley stabbed to death at Brooklyn gas station while voguing after anti-gay remarks

CNN
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Police are looking for a 17-year-old they believe is responsible for the stabbing death of a man in Brooklyn, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The 28-year-old man was fatally stabbed at a Brooklyn gas station Saturday night in what police are investigating as a possible anti-gay hate crime, an NYPD spokesman told CNN.

O’Shae Sibley was dancing — vogueing — to a Beyoncé song with friends at the gas station when a group of men approached them and started yelling gay slurs at them, Sibley’s friend Otis Pena said on Facebook Live. The anti-gay slurs eventually led to a dispute, the NYPD spokesman said.

Pena, who witnessed the incident, said the argument escalated and a man stabbed Sibley. Pena said he went to Sibley’s aid and applied pressure to his wound. Police said Sibley was stabbed in the torso. He was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Sibley was a professional dancer who appeared in several music videos and also performed at New York City’s famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, according to the organization’s website.

“The Ailey Organization Mourns the Tragic Death of O’Shae Sibley After an Attack Outside a Brooklyn Gas Station Saturday Night,” Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation Dance Studio, Ailey Extension, said in a statement Monday. “O’Shae was a beloved and devoted Ailey Extension student. He had incredible energy in the studio and was loved by instructors and classmates.”

Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a New York state senator, tweeted about the incident Monday and said he was “devastated and outraged” to learn of Sibley’s death.

“Despite the best efforts of homophobes, gay joy is not a crime. Hate-fueled attacks are,” tweeted the senator, who is gay.