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A stabbing caught on tape at a Brooklyn gas station is being probed as a possible anti-gay hate crime.
On Saturday, July 29, 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley and his friends stopped to fuel up at a Mobil gas station around 11 p.m.
Sibley and his three friends were enjoying their summer evening, dancing to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album while pumping gas.
Surveillance footage obtained by the New York Post document a group of men approaching Sibley and his friends as they were “vouging.”
The footage captures the men speaking aggressively to the choreographer and his friends, but Sibley does not back down.
Summy Ullah, an employee of the gas station’s adjoining Bolla Market, told the Gothamist the men began spewing hateful comments towards the group of friends.
“These people were like, ‘We’re Muslim. I don’t want you dancing’.”
Man who killed gay man said his religion was offended
Ullah identified the instigators as friends of a man who works at a nearby smoke shop and frequently comes by the gas station to use the restroom.
“The gay people were not trying to fight,” said Ullah. “The smoke shop kid and his friend started this.”
Ullah claims he attempted to intervene as the fight escalated.
The footage shows the groups dispersing after exchanging words but later reconvening as the argument continues.
A physical fight breaks out between the groups, and individuals scatter.
Later in the video Sibley appears from behind a black SUV with a stab wound to his torso.
Sibley’s friend, Otis Pena, pressed on his wound to stop the bleeding before he was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to police reports.
Pena posted a video on Facebook hours later, crying as he mourned the loss of his friend.
“They murdered him because he’s gay, because he stood up for his friends,” he said. ” His name was O’Shae and you all killed him. You all murdered him right in front of me.”
No arrests had been made by Monday, but the police said the hate crimes unit was involved in the investigation.