A white man who fatally stabbed a gay Black dancer at a Brooklyn gas station in 2023 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday, ending a hate-crime case that shocked the city\u2019s L.G.B.T.Q. community.<\/p>\n
The man, Dmitriy Popov, was 17 years old when he plunged a five-and-a-half-inch blade<\/a> into the chest of the dancer, O\u2019Shae Sibley.<\/p>\n The attack happened after Mr. Popov and a group of his friends began yelling racist and homophobic slurs at Mr. Sibley and his friends, all gay men of color who had been blasting Beyonc\u00e9 while filling up a rental car with gas, prosecutors said during Mr. Popov\u2019s trial, which ended in June.<\/p>\n Mr. Popov, who testified during the trial,<\/a> had claimed self-defense, arguing that Mr. Sibley rushed at him after he pulled out his knife. But a jury convicted him of manslaughter<\/a> as a hate crime, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. The jury acquitted him of the most serious charges against him, including murder in the second degree as a hate crime.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Mr. Popov, now 20, stood up in a packed courtroom in Brooklyn Supreme Court and turned to where dozens of relatives and friends of Mr. Sibley were sitting.<\/p>\n \u201cI never wanted to kill anybody,\u201d he said, describing his fatal encounter with Mr. Sibley as an \u201cunfortunate situation.\u201d He added, \u201cI would want everybody to know that this had nothing to do with race or with sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I could take it back,\u201d Mr. Popov said. \u201cI just ask for forgiveness from the family, the friends and his loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n His apology came after Mr. Sibley\u2019s relatives and friends spoke at the hearing, describing the way that his death had changed them.<\/p>\n Otis Pena, who was with Mr. Sibley the night he was killed, said he is plagued by \u201cnight terrors\u201d and takes medication for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Joshua Sanchez, who was also there, said he now walks through the city afraid someone might attack him because he is gay.<\/p>\n The day of the killing, July 29, 2023, Mr. Sibley and four of his friends had been at a beach in New Jersey and stopped at the Mobil gas station on their way back home.<\/p>\n Surveillance footage showed Mr. Sibley, bare-chested and in pink swim trunks, leaning against a column, eating sunflower seeds and, at one point, raising one leg gracefully as Beyonc\u00e9 played from the car. His friend, Mr. Pena, shimmied up and down the parking lot, laughing. Moments later, Mr. Popov and his friends came out of the gas station store and began mocking them.<\/p>\n In court on Thursday, Mr. Sanchez looked at Mr. Popov and said he had taken away a \u201cbrotherhood\u201d of friends who once moved through New York freely, but now live in fear.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t go to that gas station being hateful,\u201d Mr. Sanchez said. \u201cWe came with joy and happiness, and he ruined it because he wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n