NYC High School Student Charged With Murder – Billboard

Police have arrested a 17-year-old highschool pupil on a hate-motivated homicide cost within the deadly stabbing of knowledgeable dancer throughout an altercation between two teams of pals at a New York City fuel station final weekend.

Police took {the teenager} into custody Friday (Aug. 4) in reference to the killing of the 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, who was homosexual. Authorities declined to launch the defendant’s title.

“Parents lost a child, a child, to something that was clearly a hate crime,” Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, mentioned Saturday throughout a information convention outdoors the Brooklyn fuel station the place Sibley was killed July 29.

The stabbing occurred after the 2 teams acquired right into a confrontation at one of many fuel pumps, the place Sibley was dancing together with his pals to a Beyoncé tune. Authorities mentioned Sibley’s group was being taunted by the opposite group earlier than the confrontation led to violence.

Beyoncé would later pay tribute to Sibley on her web site.

Security digicam video confirmed the 2 teams arguing for a couple of minutes. Both sides had walked away when Sibley and a buddy abruptly returned and once more confronted one of many younger males, who had stayed behind recording on his cellphone.

In the video, Sibley might be seen following the teenager after which lunging at him earlier than the 2 disappeared out of the digicam’s view. A second later, he walks backward into view, checking his facet, after which collapses to the sidewalk.

Lee Soulja Simmons, the chief director for the NYC Center for Black Pride, additionally spoke on the information convention.

“We wrestle with people within our community constantly facing discrimination — not just because you’re Black but because you represent LGBT” communities, he mentioned.

“The fact that he was doing nothing more but voguing and dancing here, he did not deserve to die in that way,” Simmons mentioned.

One of Sibley’s pals who was there, Otis Pena, mentioned in a Facebook video that Sibley was killed as a result of he was homosexual, and “because he stood up for his friends.”

One witness, Summy Ullah, mentioned in interviews that the lads complained that their conduct offended them as Muslims.

Some leaders of the realm’s Muslim group condemned the slaying.

“The weight of this loss is felt deeply, not just by the family and friends of O’Shae, but by all of us who value life, peace and justice,” Soniya Ali, the chief director of the Muslim Community Center, mentioned Saturday.

“As Muslims, we are committed to stand up for justice, even if it means standing against our own selves,” she mentioned. “We unequivocally condemn the unjust murder of O’Shae.”

Sibley carried out with the dance firm Philadanco in his native Philadelphia and in New York, the place he took courses with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension program.