NEW YORK (AP) — The deadly stabbing of a homosexual man after a confrontation between a bunch of pals who had been dancing to a Beyoncé music and younger males who apparently took offense has outraged New York Metropolis’s LGBTQ group and spurred Beyoncé herself to publish a tribute on her web site.
No arrests have been made in Saturday’s stabbing of O’Shae Sibley, a 28-year-old skilled dancer, at a Brooklyn gasoline station.
Police have launched few particulars on the investigation and haven’t mentioned a motive, however a good friend who was there, Otis Pena, stated in an emotional Fb video that Sibley died “as a result of he stood up for his pals.”
Sibley carried out with the dance firm Philadanco in his native Philadelphia and in New York. He used dance to have fun his LGBTQ id in works comparable to “ Comfortable: A Love Letter to Black Queer Males,” choreographed by Kemar Jewel.
Sibley took courses with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension program, whose director, Lisa Johnson-Willingham, stated in a press release, “We’re shocked and heartbroken that O’Shae’s life has been taken by mindless violence and prolong our honest condolences to his household and family members.”
Sibley was at a Mobil station in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood with pals getting gasoline, listening to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album “and simply having time,” Pena stated in his video.
Information experiences have broadly described Sibley as having been stabbed whereas dancing, however safety digicam video exhibits a extra complicated scenario.
The video, obtained by a number of information organizations, exhibits a number of the males in Sibley’s group doing a dance-like strut by their automotive, shirtless in bathing fits. A short while later, Sibley walks to the gasoline station’s comfort retailer and begins talking with a younger man, who seems to be agitated. As they speak, a small crowd gathers.
Sibley’s pals be a part of him and the group argues with the individual for about two minutes. Then, each side stroll away. Sibley and his pals return to their automotive. Everybody else goes contained in the gasoline station’s comfort retailer aside from one one who stays outdoors recording along with his cellphone.
Sibley is about to get right into a automotive when he and a good friend freeze, then briskly stride again towards the individual with the cellphone as if he had stated one thing that angered them.
The younger man, who seems to be like he might be in his teenagers, retreats, strolling backward as Sibley advances. A person comes out of the comfort retailer and steps between them. Then, Sibley lunges across the man on the teen, who leaps backward. Each figures transfer out of view of the digicam.
It isn’t clear from the video when Sibley is stabbed or who wields the knife. A second later he walks again into view wanting surprised and checking his facet.
Sibley was taken to a close-by hospital, the place he died.
A witness, Summy Ullah, advised the Each day Information the younger males had been harassing Sibley’s group as a result of their conduct offended them.
“They had been saying, ‘Oh, we’re Muslim, so don’t do that in entrance of me,’” stated Ullah, 32.
Ullah added, “Nothing else was happening. They had been solely dancing.” He stated somebody requested, “Why are you dancing in your underwear?”
In his video, posted hours after Sibley’s loss of life, Pena choked again tears whereas recalling the stabbing of the person he referred to as “the salt to my pepper, the peanut butter to my jelly.”
“They murdered him as a result of he was homosexual,” he stated.
A “Justice for O’Shae Sibley” memorial is deliberate Friday on the Mobil station, and a vigil is deliberate on Saturday at Manhattan’s LGBTQ Neighborhood Middle. A celebration of life ceremony will happen Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Beyoncé’s web site now flashes the message “Relaxation in energy O’Shae Sibley.”
