Dmitriy Popov did not want to use the knife, he testified in a Brooklyn courtroom Wednesday.
He said he had started to carry a “small kitchen knife” in his pocket after he was jumped while walking home from his job at a Midwood smoke shop. If anyone tried to hurt him again, he said, he had planned to take out the knife “just to show somebody.”
“My intention was never to use it,” Popov testified.
But on July 29, 2023, Popov stabbed O’Shae Sibley in the torso, puncturing his heart and killing him, prosecutors alleged as they made their case in a trial that began May 11. The 20-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murder as a hate crime and other charges. He was 17 at the time but is being tried as an adult.
Prosecutors have accused Popov of killing Sibley because he was Black and gay. Sibley and several friends, all queer men of color, had been dancing in their bathing suits at a Midwood gas station when Popov and his friends confronted the group and told them to leave, according to surveillance footage and testimony at trial.
Prosecutors said Popov shouted a homophobic slur before stabbing Sibley, and an eyewitness testified that he heard someone in the group use a racial slur but did not know who. On the stand, Popov denied using any slurs or harboring any hatred toward Sibley. He said he pulled out the knife because he was scared, and that he used it after Sibley punched him.
“Everything was happening so fast,” he said. Popov’s testimony is expected to continue Wednesday afternoon.
This is a developing story and will be updated.