A teenager has reportedly been arrested in connection to the death of the New York City dancer, O’shae Sibley who was stabbed outside of a gas station in Midwood, Brooklyn on Saturday night.
As we previously reported, Sibley and four friends were dancing and vogueing to one of Beyonce’s latest songs from her Renaissance album. A customer reportedly exited the store and confronted the dancing group of friends before being joined by several other men leaving the store. Gas station shop worker, Summy Ullah told reporters that the provoking group said the dancing offended them as Muslims.
The crime was caught on security footage. After a verbal altercation, Sibley and his friends began walking back to their car when one of the men in the attacking group started filming. Sibley and his friends made their way back toward the men outside the storefront and the two groups walked around the corner of the building, where one of the men stabbed Sibley in the torso.
Ullah said he recognized the attackers as a smoke shop worker and his friends, who frequently used the gas station shop’s bathroom.
Sibley’s friend Otis Pena, who was with him at the gas station, posted a Facebook Live video on Sunday, July 30. He said the group of friends had gone to the beach to celebrate his birthday and stopped at the gas station on the way back to his home two blocks away. He stated that the attackers had launched homophobic slurs and that Sibley had responded with, “Yeah, we’re gay, but we’re just celebrating my brother’s birthday.”
“They murdered him because he was gay, because he stood up for his friends,” Pena says in the video, his eyes red as he fights back tears. “And they stabbed him, right in the heart. They took the one thing I always fought for. They killed my brother right in front of me. I’m covered in his blood.” He describes holding Sibley and putting his hand on the stab wound.
We also shared that Beyonce paid tribute to the dancer as well sharing a message to her website saying, “Rest In Power O’Shae Sibley.”