NEW YORK (1010 WINS) --The 17-year-old suspect in the deadly stabbing of O'Shae Sibley, the 28-year-old professional dancer confronted by a group of young men at a Brooklyn gas station last weekend, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Friday.
The suspect, who was identified by Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez as Dmitriy Popov, of Sheepshead Bay, was charged with murder as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon and indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for murder in the second degree as a hate crime.
If convicted, he faces a minimum of 20 years in jail.
The teen attends high school in Brooklyn and lives there, NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny said at a press conference. Officials previously said he has a criminal record.
Kenny said the suspect is the only person who will be charged in relation to the killing at this point.
The NYPD also said it does not know if the suspect will be tried as an adult.
Mayor Eric Adams, addressed reports that the suspect allegedly told Sibley that as a Muslim, he was offended by gay men.
Asked Adams: "So what are we doing as adults that creates this energy of hate? And that energy that's created it's not coming from a community, such as the Muslim community that is aware of the hate that they see every day. It's not coming from the LGBTQ+ community of the hate they experience. So it's coming from other entities that we need to fight against and the only way we can win is we are united in our fight and that's why we're standing here today on the announcement of this apprehension."
The suspect, accompanied by a lawyer, turned himself into the 61st Precinct in Sheepshead Bay Friday afternoon.
Friends and incensed New Yorkers took to Christopher Street Thursday night, taping flyers for a Saturday night memorial to trees along street, notably across the street from the Stonewall, where the LGBTQ liberation movement is widely considered to have begun. They also handed out the flyers to shop owners.
They also taped "Justice for O'Shae" flyers along the street, as well. The candlelight memorial service will take place Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street in the West Village.
A memorial with flowers, candles and notes of sympathy were also placed Club Cumming, an East Village LGBTQ+ bar owned by actor Alan Cumming.
Sibley's father, Jake Kelly, has launched a GoFundMe page, which as of Thursday afternoon, had raised nearly $50,000 from about 1,700 donations. The goal was $10,000.
"My name is Jake Kelly the father of O'shae," his dad, who lives in Philadelphia, wrote. "We are raising funds for his home going service to help cover costs due to this untimely and undeserved hate crime incident that cut my son's life down just because of his sexual preference which was just not fair to him in his prime."
He added, "His spirit lit up every room he stepped in. His smile was contagious! To know him, was to live him. He did not deserve this. Everyone loved his spirit."
On July 30, Sibley and a group of friends were dancing and voguing to Beyoncé music while filling up at a gas station in Brooklyn, when another group of males hurled homophobic slurs at the group of dancers.
An employee of the store next to the gas station, Summy Ullah, told Gothamist that Sibley and his friends were told they were offending the other group's Muslim faith. “These people were like 'we’re Muslim, I don’t want you dancing,'” Ullah told Gothamist, adding that Sibley and his friends were "not trying to fight."
In surveillance footage, one of the males is seen stabbing Sibley.
The NYPD had previously said the suspect has a criminal history.
Otis Pena, a close friend of Sibley's who was there when he was killed, said in a video posted to Facebook that he tried to stop the bleeding by pressing on the wound but Sibley was pronounced dead after being taken to Maimonides Medical Center. “They murdered him because he was gay, because he stood up for his friends," he said.
Spike Lee took to Instagram, writing "DEADLY GAY HATE CRIME HERE IN BROOKLYN. GOD BLESS YOU BROTHER"
And on her website, Beyoncé wrote, "Rest in power."
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