After O’Shae Sibley was stabbed over the weekend, Beyoncé paid him tribute. His death is being looked at by the New York City Police Department as a potential hate crime. Beyoncé, 41, penned the words “REST IN POWER O’SHAE SIBLEY” on her official website.
Who was O’Shae Sibley?
O’Shae Sibley was a 28-year-old professional dancer and choreographer. He was one of 11 children of his parents.
Sibley was a member of Philadanco until relocating from Philadelphia to Brownsville, Brooklyn in 2020 to pursue career opportunities. He joined an all-queer dance troupe for the “Vogue 4 #BlackLivesMatter” video project, and they have performed at Lincoln Centre. Sibley used his dance abilities to promote social change as well as for artistic goals.
He was stabbed after an altercation outside a Mobil petrol station in Midwood, Brooklyn, New York. The incident started when he and his friends were harassed by some people for vogueing and blasting Beyoncé music.
Bullies came out of a store and ordered them to stop dancing while calling them homophobic slurs and saying that they were disrespecting their religion. In an effort to defuse the tension, Sibley confronted the group. However, a fight broke out, and one of the men ultimately stabbed Sibley.
The NYPD is currently looking for a 17-year-old suspect who has been recognized as the one who stabbed the victim. O’Shae was gay, and his killing is being investigated as possibly having been a hate crime. “The incident is being investigated as a possible biased incident,” a spokesman for the New York City Police Department told PEOPLE.
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Otis Pena, one of his friends, recorded the night out and streamed it on Facebook Live. The dancer was sent to Maimonides Medical Centre in Brooklyn for treatment of stab wounds to his torso, but when he arrived, he had already been declared dead.
“The Ailey organization mourns the tragic death of O’Shae Sibley, following an attack outside of a Brooklyn gas station on Saturday night,” the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation’s Ailey Extension, said on Monday. “O’Shae was a cherished and devoted Ailey Extension student. He had incredible energy in the studio and was loved by instructors and fellow classmates.”
