Death Sentence for Dancing
The incident unfolded when Sibley and his friends—all professional dancers—stopped at a Mobil gas station in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood. While filling their car with gas, the group was listening to Beyoncé's Renaissance album and began voguing—a dance style that originated in New York City's Black and Latino LGBTQ+ ballroom community.
According to prosecutors, Popov’s group confronted Sibley and his friends, shouting racist and homophobic slurs, demanding they stop. Surveillance cameras from the gas station show the confrontation worsening.
Witnesses testified that Popov continued taunting Sibley, who tried to de-escalate the situation, telling Popov, “You don’t know us, we’re just having a good time and enjoying our lives. It’s all respect; we’re allowed to be here just like you.”
But Popov pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Sibley once in the chest. He died a short time later.
According to The New York Times, Popov testified for nearly three hours in his own defense and denied ever using any racial or homophobic slurs. He also told the jury he acted in self-defense, not hate.
“I was scared that I was going to get hurt,” he said.
Prosecutors pointed out that Popov had plenty of chances to just walk away with his friends, but he continued to stay, even recording the confrontation on his phone. New York State law says you can’t claim self-defense if you start an argument and decide not to walk away when given a chance.
During his sentencing phase, Popov addressed the court, continuing to deny Sibley’s death was about race or sexuality, but also apologizing to Sibley’s family and friends. “I never wanted to kill anybody. I wish I could take it back,” Popov told the court. “I just ask for forgiveness from the family, the friends and his loved ones.”
More Than a Dancer
Originally from Philadelphia, Sibley was a professional dancer and choreographer who trained with Alvin Ailey and the Philadelphia Dance Company. His funeral drew hundreds of mourners, and the City of Philadelphia issued a proclamation in his honor.
He performed at Lincoln Center with an all-queer dance group for a project called “Vogue 4 #BlackLivesMatter,” the same dance he and his friends were doing in the gas station parking lot.
For many, voguing represents far more than dancing. “They were voguing to Beyoncé, which is racially tied,” Flores says, “but voguing as a dance art is very much gender transgressive, and quite a unique expression. I think that would be a huge component here in terms of triggering these individuals.”
At a memorial service, Sibley’s friend, Otis Pena, described Sibley as a beautiful soul with an infectious smile who stood up for what he believed in. He told BET he thought Sibley was killed because Popov saw him as a threat: “They saw a Black, gay man living his truth and his freedom, and they just wanted to take that away.”
A Long History of Hate
Joshua Sanchez and Philip Wilson, who were both with Sibley the night he was killed, also gave victim impact statements. Sanchez said he has unbearable PTSD and trouble sleeping. “The impact is way bigger than I can put into words today,” Sanchez said. “I walk in constant fear, as a Black feminine-presenting man in America. I walk in constant fear for my life.”
Wilson told the court he’ll never get over what happened that night. “I was made to feel like someone who didn’t deserve to exist at a gas station,” he said. “I will never get to watch my friend dance again. I lost a part of my smile that day, my hope that night, by losing a friend.”
This type of additional victimization isn’t unusual with these types of hate crimes, according to Flores. “There needs to be a broader understanding of the impact of hate crimes and victimization on the broader communities,” he says. “Given our more interconnected society with social media, I think those impacts have much more implications now than ever before.”
Between 2023 and 2025, the ACLU has tracked 1,659 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States. By August 2026, the ACLU had already tracked 528 more.
But measuring hate crimes today is difficult. Flores says about half of victims of non-fatal hate crimes never report them, so they never get documented in any agency data. And a January 2025 executive order by President Donald Trump mandated sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) be removed from federal data collections. According to research from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 360 SOGI measures have been removed from federal data collections in the one-year period since the executive order’s issue.
“That means the current administration of the National Crime Victimization Survey doesn't collect gender identity data anymore, so we don't get the full picture of what's actually going on,” Flores says.
Even so, available research shows that LGBT people experience disproportionately high rates of violence. Studies from the Williams Institute suggests that LGBT people are five times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent crime and nine times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime. Black LGBT people, like Sibley, are at the highest risk overall, followed by Hispanic and white LGBTQ.
An Enduring Legacy
The conviction and sentencing of Popov may have closed one chapter, but it hasn’t answered the larger questions raised by Sibley's murder: How can communities reduce bias-motivated violence? And how can public spaces become places where people of every identity feel safe to express themselves?
In the meantime, Sibley's legacy continues to endure. Beyoncé paid tribute on her Renaissance tour website, posting “Rest in Power, O’Shae Sibley,” after his death. The Philadelphia Dance Company Philadanco! where O’Shae studied as a teen established a memorial scholarship to support young male dancers in his honor.
