{"id":227782,"date":"2026-05-11T22:10:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227782\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T22:10:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:10:47","slug":"teenage-killer-of-dancer-oshae-sibley-at-brooklyn-gas-station-was-driven-by-hate-da","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/227782\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage killer of dancer O\u2019Shae Sibley at Brooklyn gas station was driven by hate: DA"},"content":{"rendered":"

A knife-wielding teen charged with fatally stabbing a gay Black dancer was offended by the man\u2019s shirtless voguing<\/a> and acted out of hatred, \u201clike your typical bully, walking around armed with a weapon,\u201d prosecutors argued at his trial in Brooklyn Monday.<\/p>\n

Dmitriy Popov, was 17 years old when he knifed O\u2019Shae Sibley at the Mobil station on Coney Island Ave. near Avenue P in Midwood on July 29, 2023, prosecutors allege, in a crime that drew national attention \u2014 including a reaction from Beyonc\u00e9, who posted a tribute to the victim<\/a> on her web page.<\/p>\n

Popov, now 20, is on trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court charged as an adult for murder as a hate crime,<\/a> and is claiming self defense.<\/p>\n

In her opening statement Monday, Assistant D.A. Sarah Jafari told jurors that Popov and his friends from. a nearby smoke shop mocked and tormented Sibley and his group, who were returning home after a day at the beach, exuberantly dancing in their swimsuits<\/a> to Beyonc\u00e9 as they pumped gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot provoke an argument based on hate and use that confrontation as an excuse to kill another human being,\u201d Jafari said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be clear to you at the end of this case that this is not a case of self defense\u2026. This is a case about hate, about bigotry, about ignorance, and about violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople gather at a memorial for O\u2019Shae Sibley on Aug. 4, 2023, at the gas station where he was murdered in Brooklyn. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sibley, 28,<\/a> and his four friends were returning from a trip to the Jersey Shore to celebrate the birthday of one member of their group, Otis Pena, when they pulled over to get gas just after 11 a.m. They were all wearing their bathing suits, no tops, and Pena\u2019s bathing suit was essentially a jock strap, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were living their best lives. But this is the time when the defendant\u2019s group collided with O\u2019Shae\u2019s friends,\u201d Jafari said. Popov and two of his friends walked over from the smoke shop where they walked to the gas station and entered the attached Bolla Market, and when they saw the dancing scene outside, they decided they\u2019d seen enough. One of Popov\u2019s pals launched into a string of slurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet the f\u2014 out of here, you f\u2014-ts, get the f\u2014 out. We don\u2019t do that gay s\u2014 here. We\u2019re Muslim. Get the f\u2014 out,\u201d Jafari recounted. Popov\u2019s lawyer has said he\u2019s Christian, not Muslim.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sibley approached Popov\u2019s group and explained, \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to have fun,\u201d only for the man yelling at them to respond, \u201cI don\u2019t give a f\u2014. We don\u2019t do that gay s\u2014 around here,\u201d Jafari said. At one point in the confrontation, a member of Popov\u2019s group used the n-word, she said.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople gather at a memorial for O\u2019Shae Sibley on Aug. 4, 2023, at the gas station where he was murdered in Brooklyn. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Eventually, both Sibley and Popov\u2019s groups split up, the confrontation seemingly over, but Popov stood outside the store, phone out as if he was recording, and continued taunting them with slurs, Jafari said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does he do that when everyone else has left? I submit to you because of that knife in his pocket. It was that knife that emboldened him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sibley and two of his friends walked back to Popov, visibly annoyed, but still in their bathing suits and clearly unarmed, and Popov pulled out a knife, telling one of them,\u201d Come on, get stabbed,\u201d Jafari said.<\/p>\n

Sibley, trying to get between Popov and his friends, made contact with the teen, palms out and open handed, and Popov stabbed him in the heart, Jafari said.<\/p>\n

Jurors saw a 40-minute compilation video of the confrontation and the run-up to it \u2014 all silent, except for a 911 call played over one video after the stabbing, and a clip from a responding NYPD officer\u2019s body camera.<\/p>\n

Sibley can be seen standing as blood pours out of his wound and onto the pavement, then sitting and laying down as he loses more blood.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople participate in a memorial vigil for O’Shae Sibley on Aug. 5, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019Shae was living his life out and proud. There will be no mistaking that in the final moments of his life, he was faced with the hate and bigotry of this defendant and his friends, just because of who he was,\u201d Jafari said. \u201cFor all of O\u2019Shae\u2019s accomplishments and dreams, all this defendant and his friends saw was someone to insult, to disparage, to put down, to disrespect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popov\u2019s lawyer, Mark Pollard, told the jury that the video shows a different story, and doesn\u2019t capture the his young client\u2019s nervousness and fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh man, oh man, I cannot wait till you all see the video in this case,:\u201d he said at the start of his opening argument. \u201cI bet right now, you\u2019re going to say, \u2018Oh my goodness, that was self defense. Let me tell you what this case is really about. This case is about a few terrifying seconds in the life of a 17 -year-old boy, not a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWait till you see how he looked two years ago \u2014 frail, skinny, fragile, puny. He was afraid for his life in a chaotic situation, Pollard said.<\/p>\n

\"Friends,Friends, family, and mourners gather at the casket of O’Shae Sibley during funeral services and a celebration of life at the Met Philadelphia on Aug. 8, 2023 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Pollard said Sibley and his friends came after Popov after the confrontation had calmed down. \u201cThey assaulted him,\u201d the defense lawyer countered.<\/p>\n

Popov will testify in his own defense, his lawyer vowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to take the stand and tell you what actually happened,\u201d he said. \u201cBut guess what, you don\u2019t have to rely on what he has to say because there\u2019s video\u2026. You\u2019re going to see those videos.You\u2019re going to say, \u2018Oh my goodness, look at that, that was reasonable.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurors also heard brief testimony from Sibley\u2019s mother, Onetha Sibley who described how he grew up in Philadelphia, started dancing at age 12, and turned it into a career. He called her the morning of the killing, she recounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just told me that he was tired, and he had class\u2026 and he wanted to go to the beach,\u201d she said. They never spoke again, and the next morning, Philadelphia cops turned up at her door to tell her he was dead.<\/p>\n

\"JakeJake Kelly carries the casket of his son, O’Shae Sibley, following funeral services and a celebration of life at the Met Philadelphia on Aug. 8, 2023 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After describing how she identified a photo of Sibley\u2019s bother, she broke down in tears, gasping, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry! Oh! Oh!\u201d<\/p>\n

The trial continues Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A knife-wielding teen charged with fatally stabbing a gay Black dancer was offended by the man\u2019s shirtless voguing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-227782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}