Brooklyn teen who fatally stabbed gay dancer O’Shae Sibley charged as an adult with murder as a hate crime: NYPD

The 17-year-old boy who fatally stabbed gay dancer O’Shae Sibley for voguing at a Brooklyn gas station has been charged as an adult with second-degree murder and committing a hate crime, authorities said Saturday.

The teen hurled homophobic slurs and anti-Black epithets at his victim before plunging the knife deep into his side, piercing his heart, Chief Joe Kenny of the NYPD Detective Bureau said.

He was ordered held without bail in Brooklyn Criminal Court late Friday night, but is expected to appear in court on Monday, said a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney.

The teen was not named because of his age. The boy’s grandmother defended him on Saturday, claiming he isn’t a racist.

Nor is the suspect Muslim, the grandmother said. A witness to the violence said people with the suspect identified themselves as Muslim.

The suspect is “a Christian and belongs to the church. He wears a cross,” the grandmother told the Daily News. “The news says he hates Black people, but his older brother has married a black woman. We have a grandchild who is Black. He does not understand gay or not gay.”

Her grandson was merely defending himself from Sibley and his friends when Sibley was stabbed, she said.

“There were four of them… strong, big men and intoxicated,” she said. “If he did not do it, the guys would have killed him.”

The teen surrendered to authorities Friday afternoon with his attorney after a week-long manhunt. A lot of pressure was put on the teen’s family to get him to surrender, police said.

Mayor Adams stood at the Mobil gas station on Coney Island Ave. and Avenue P in Midwood on Saturday with Muslim and LGBTQ+ leaders to announce the arrest and lay flowers at the spot where Sibley was fatally stabbed.

“He was a young man. He could be my son,” Adams said about Sibley. “He was coming to the city to express himself the way New Yorkers are allowed to do.”

Sibley was returning from a trip to the Jersey Shore with several friends when they pulled into the gas station to fill up their tank.

Shirtless and in swim trunks on one of the hottest days of the year, Sibley and his friends were voguing near the gas pumps when the teen suspect and his friends stepped out of the station’s store.

The teens “demanded that they stop dancing,” Kenny said. “You can see on video that the heated dispute quickly turned physical.

“There were lot of anti-gay statements and derogatory anti-Black statements,” Kenny said. “There were a lot of people from the community acting like peacemakers.”

The dispute ended with Sibley being fatally stabbed.

Otis Pena, Sibley’s best friend for years, recorded a Facebook Live video to describe what happened. “Y’all murdered him right in front of me,” Pena said. “Just...just pumping gas and listening to `Renaissance’ Just having a good time. Y’all killed O’Shae. Y’all killed him.”

His friends weren’t being charged because none of them took part in the stabbing, according to police. Most had already left before the attack even occurred.

The teens identified themselves as Muslim and said they objected to Sibley’s performance and to the mini bathing suit one of his friends was wearing, a witness told the Daily News.

While ugly slurs were lobbed against Sibley and his friends, Adams said the killing shouldn’t be cast as a Muslim vs. gay quarrel.

“These are both important communities in the city of New York,” Adams said. “Both are against any level of hate and both have been victimized by Islamophobia and anti-gay hate.

“Our message today is that this is a city where you are free to express yourself and that expression should not end with any form of violence,” Adams said.

The teenage murder suspect lives in Brooklyn about two miles from where the stabbing took place. He attended high school near the gas station, cops said.

Sibley was a prolific dancer who performed at Lincoln Center and with the Philadelphia Dance Company. He was also a competitive voguer who was part of the House of DuMure-Versailles, which was featured in season three of “Legendary,” HBO’s reality show about voguing competitions.

“He was doing nothing more than voguing and dancing. Some of the youth with him were brothers and sisters in is ballroom community,” Black gay activist Lee Soulja Simmons said at the press conference. “He did not deserve to die in that way.”

“I don’t think anybody should be afraid to live their life and express themselves, but it is something we face every day,” he said.

Soniya Ali, executive director of the Muslim Community Center, said the teen wouldn’t have found refuge in her community.

“As Muslims we are commanded to stand up for justice, even if it means standing against our own selves,” she said.

A candlelight memorial for Sibley was scheduled for Saturday evening at Manhattan’s LGBTQ Community Center at 208 W. 13th St. in the West Village, followed by a procession to Pier 47 on the Hudson River waterfront, mourners said.