what to know
- A man dancing at a Brooklyn gas station was stabbed to death after a dispute broke out between two groups Saturday night, and a teenager is now being sought in connection with the slaying of dancer O’Shea Sibley.
- Police sources identified the suspect as a teenager who is still on the run.
- Those who know Sibley as a talented dancer and certainly a friend have no doubt that his murder was a hate crime.
NEW YORK — A man dancing at a Brooklyn gas station was stabbed to death after a dispute erupted between two groups Saturday night, and a teenager is now being sought in connection with the murder of dancer O’Shea Sibley. .
Police sources identified the suspect as a teenager who is still on the run.
Those who know Sibley as a talented dancer and certainly a friend have no doubt that his murder was a hate crime.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sibley belonged to several dance groups in the area. He was murdered at a gas station on Coney Island Avenue in Midwood following a dispute over him dancing at the gas pump. At one point, a gas station attendant tried to intervene. Witnesses say the dispute began after Sibley, who worked with various dance troupes, began “vogueing,” a type of dance popular in many LGBTQ dance halls. As this all escalated, Sibley was stabbed in the chest and pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Law enforcement say the suspect fled the scene in a dark-colored SUV. Our NBC 4 New York sister network spoke with a neighbor who knew Sibley Monday morning. The neighbor, who is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, said he was concerned for the 28-year-old’s safety.
“I sent him a text that morning to say I wanted to talk to him, to tell him to tell his friends to be careful, you know, because you have to be careful how you present yourself,” Beckenbaur Hamilton said. “They don’t live in the neighborhood we live in, it’s a very homophobic neighborhood and they were here dancing.
“There is no progress. Progress? Yes. But we don’t see it here. We have to live in the suffocation,” Hamilton continued. “We live here in a community where we have to pretend to be someone else.”
The investigation continues.
