NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- The fatal stabbing of a professional dancer outside a Brooklyn gas station over the weekend is being investigated as a potential anti-gay hate crime, police said Monday.
Sibley Oshae, 28, was pronounced dead at Maimonides Medical Center following Saturday night's stabbing at the Mobil gas station at Avenue P and Coney Island Avenue in Midwood.
Oshae, who was a member of an all-queer dance group, was with friends and voguing to music at the gas station around 11:15 p.m. when a group of men exited the gas station store, according to police and witnesses.
One witness, Summy Ullah, told the Daily News that the men said the performance offended their faith.
“They were saying, ‘Oh, we’re Muslim, so don’t do this in front of me,’” Ullah told the outlet. “This guy was dancing in underwear and the suspect was like ‘Why are you dancing in your underwear?’”
The two groups of men then got into a heated exchange outside the gas station.
“We have our own life,” the victim reportedly told the men shortly before he was stabbed. “We can do whatever we want, you know. We’re dancing, that’s our life.”
Ullah tried multiple times to separate them, but Oshae was stabbed in the torso by someone in the group who then fled the scene.
No arrests had been reported as of Monday, but police said they have video of the attack and that the killing is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Ullah said he believes the stabbing was motivated by hate. “Obviously, they are gay and if they are dancing that’s the problem they had,” he said.
Oshae, who lived in Brooklyn and loved to sing, dance and model, was described by his friend Malik Berry as a "representation of what ... gay Black excellence could represent and what different facets it can come in."
“What I’ve heard was that it was unprovoked, a homophobic attack,” Berry said.
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