NEW YORK (PIX11) -- A high school teen has been charged with murder as a hate crime for allegedly stabbing O'Shae Sibley, a gay dancer vogueing outside a Brooklyn gas station, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Thursday.
“We have decided to prosecute this case as a hate crime,” Gonzalez said. "O'Shae and his friends were allegedly targeted because they were dancing. They were being themselves, dancing joyfully to Beyonce music at a Brooklyn gas station. Harming no one and refusing to stop even when confronted with anti-black and homophonic slurs demanding that they stop dancing."
The teen allegedly stabbed Sibley during an altercation. Witnesses said the teen called Sibley homophobic slurs before he stabbed him.
The NYPD took the teenager, who has gone unnamed, into custody Friday in connection with the killing of the 28-year-old Sibley.
A Brooklyn grand jury heard all the evidence in this case and returned that the 17-year-old high schooler should be indicted with a count of murder in the second degree as a hate crime.
If convicted, the defendant faces a minimum of 20 years in jail and a maximum of 25 years in jail to life.
“We will announce that the indictment is going to be arraigned tomorrow in the youth court,” Gonzalez said. “Because of his age and because of that, I’m not releasing his name today, but he’ll be arraigned tomorrow in court in Judge Walker’s court and so tomorrow will be the next step in the journey for justice.”
