Arrest Made on Stabbing of O'Shae Sibley A Gay Dancer in Brooklyn
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New York City Council Member Inna Vernikov, whose district includes the gas station where Sibley was stabbed, confirmed the update on social media Friday afternoon.
"The suspect in the fatal stabbing of O’Shae Sibley in my district last Saturday night just turned himself in to the @NYPD61Pct & is now in their custody," she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Wishing the family peace during this difficult time & hoping for swift justice & serious consequences for the perpetrator."
In a phone call on Friday, a New York City Police Department spokesperson would not confirm that a suspect was arrested, but said that a person of interest was in police custody. The spokesperson added that no charges have yet been made.
A 17-year-old suspect was being sought by police in connection with the fatal stabbing, NBC New York previously reported. The NYPD spokesperson would not confirm that the person of interest who is in custody is the 17-year-old mentioned in previous reports.
Sibley was playing music from Beyoncé's "Renaissance" album and vogue dancing Saturday when he was approached by a group of men who told him to stop, witnesses said. They added that he tried to de-escalate the situation before he was stabbed in the torso.
One of the men wanted Sibley to stop dancing and after “a few fights and back and forth arguing, he pulled out a knife and stabbed him,” witness Sayeda Haider said, according to NBC New York.
Otis Pena, a friend of Sibley’s who said he witnessed the stabbing, shared a video about the fatal incident on Facebook on Sunday.
“They murdered him because he’s gay, because he stood up for his friends,” Pena, who described Sibley as “the salt to my pepper,” said in the video. “His name was O’Shae, and you all killed him. You all murdered him right in front of me.”
BeyoncĂ©’s album “Renaissance” — which was released a year to date from Sibley’s killing — features samples of house music from several Black LGBTQ artists and references queer ballroom culture. BeyoncĂ©, who has a large gay fanbase, also happened to be touring in the New York City metropolitan area Saturday.
The 41-year-old singer-songwriter honored Sibley on Wednesday, posting a message about his death on her official website.
“REST IN POWER O’SHAE SIBLEY,” the global superstar’s website said.
Several other big-name celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen Degeneres, also paid tribute to Sibley.
Sibley’s stabbing coincides with a surge in anti-LGBTQ demonstrations across the nation within the last year.
Since June 2022, there has been an average of 39 anti-LGBTQ protests nationwide each month, according to a recent report by the Crowd Counting Consortium, a research group that tracks the size of political protests. In comparison, the group recorded just three protests per month from January 2017 through May 2022.
In particular, the demonstrations have made headlines in recent months for occurring in New York City, which has the largest population of LGBTQ people in the nation, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law.
Dozens of Pride flags were damaged and ripped down at the Stonewall National Monument — the site of a June 1969 uprising that is widely considered to be a critical point in the modern queer rights movement — at least three times in June, which is LGBTQ Pride Month.
A vigil is being held for Sibley on Friday evening at the gas station where he was stabbed to death
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