Teen arrested and charged for hate crime murder of O’Shae Sibley

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Seventeen-year-old Dmitriy Popov was arrested and charged this past Friday, Aug. 4, for the hate crime murder of professional dancer O’Shae Leon Sibley in Brooklyn two weeks ago.

Sibley was fatally stabbed in front of a Midwood gas station July 29 around 11 p.m. He was voguing—a competitive dance historically fashioned by queer Black and brown New Yorkers—to Beyonce’s “Renaissance” played from inside the car he and his friends were filling up before the incident. They were returning to the city from a birthday party in New Jersey.

According to the criminal complaint,

Popov and his associates allegedly approached Sibley and his four friends, summarily telling them to “stop dancing here, we are Muslim. Get that gay sh** out of here.” Homophobic slurs were also allegedly hurled, according to the document. NYPD Assistant Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny says anti-Black statements were also uttered.

The exchange lasted for around four minutes. Sibley was then stabbed in the torso. He was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center and pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

This past Saturday, Mayor Eric Adams addressed potential tensions stemming from the incident between the city’s LGBTQ+ and Muslim communities. But

Popov is reportedly a Christian, according to his lawyer and grandmother.

“Apprehension took place because every day New Yorkers contributed basic information we needed to identify and to apprehend,” said Mayor Adams. “The issue itself made an attempt to give the impression that it came from hate from the Muslim community towards the LGBTQ+ community, that was in fact not true.”

Sibley is originally from Philadelphia, but was living in Brownsville, according to police. He was reportedly laid to rest in his hometown this past Tuesday, Aug. 8. He was gay, according to his friend Otis Pena, who was present at the stabbing and recounted the incident over Facebook Live.

According to GLAAD, Sibley is one of at