The deadly stabbing of a Black, gay man who was dancing to Beyonc\u00e9 at a Midwood gas station in 2023 was not justified, a Brooklyn jury decided Monday.<\/p>\n
Jurors convicted Dmitriy Popov, 20, of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime, but acquitted him of a more serious murder charge, in the killing of 28-year-old O\u2019Shae Sibley. Popov was 17 at the time but was tried as an adult.<\/p>\n
The jury also convicted Popov of menacing, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. He faces up to 25 years in prison at his sentencing later this month.<\/p>\n
Popov\u2019s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
On July 29, 2023, Popov fatally stabbed Sibley following a verbal back-and-forth. Sibley and several friends, who were all Black and gay, were getting gas on Coney Island Avenue in Midwood after a trip to the beach, while Popov, who worked at a smoke shop nearby, was getting food inside the mini mart with a few of his friends.<\/p>\n
As Sibley and his friends danced and stretched their legs in their bathing suits, Popov\u2019s group shouted slurs and told them to leave, according to testimony at trial. Surveillance footage of the encounter also shows Popov recording on his cellphone.<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn district attorney\u2019s office said at trial that Popov spewed racist and homophobic slurs at Sibley and his friends before pulling out a knife and piercing Sibley in the heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no question that hate showed up that night at that gas station,\u201d Senior Assistant DA Sarah Jafari said in her closing statement Monday. \u201cIt is because of that hate that O\u2019Shae Sibley was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jafari said Popov had multiple opportunities to walk away, but he kept escalating the situation because he felt emboldened by the knife in his pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brought a knife to a verbal altercation that he provoked, and the law does not allow that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Popov\u2019s attorney, Mark Pollard, denied that the stabbing was motivated by racism or homophobia. He said other teens at the gas station were using slurs, not Popov.<\/p>\n
The defense attorney argued in his closing statement that the stabbing was an act of self defense and asked jurors to focus on the final moments of the encounter, when he said Popov was walking backward and Sibley was walking toward him.<\/p>\n
Pollard also asked jurors to think about Popov\u2019s perception at the time, as a teenager whose brain was not fully developed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he perceived \u2014 and reasonably perceived, I might add, is that he was in big danger and trouble,\u201d Pollard said.<\/p>\n