New York jury convicts man in O'Shae Sibley hate crime killing

A Brooklyn jury’s verdict against Dmitriy Popov delivered a hate-crime conviction without the life sentence prosecutors had sought, marking a significant legal finding in the 2023 killing of O’Shae Sibley. By convicting Popov of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime, jurors accepted that bias helped drive the attack, while rejecting the more serious murder as a hate crime charge after a three-week trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. In practical terms, the ruling leaves Popov facing up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on June 30.

Prosecutors said the case was not a spontaneous fight, but an assault shaped by anti-Black and anti-gay hostility. According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Popov, then 17, and two associates came out of the Mobil gas station at 1935 Coney Island Avenue in Midwood, Brooklyn, and hurled slurs at Sibley and four friends, including, “Get that gay s–t out of here.” The confrontation began at about 11:06 p.m. on July 29, 2023, after Sibley and his friends had stopped for gas after returning from the beach. Still in beachwear, they stepped out to stretch their legs while music played, and one of them was dancing outside the car.

The district attorney’s office said Popov kept antagonizing the group while recording on his phone, even after Sibley tried to defuse the encounter. Popov testified that he was acting in self-defense, but jurors credited prosecutors’ case that the killing followed taunting and bias-motivated harassment. The verdict also covered second-degree menacing, second-degree aggravated harassment and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Popov was initially indicted on August 11, 2023, on murder as a hate crime and related charges, and he was held without bail.

The case resonated far beyond one Brooklyn gas station because it unfolded during Pride Month and became a stark example of how public abuse can turn deadly for LGBTQ people. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he hoped the verdict would bring some solace to Sibley’s family, friends and the wider community, adding, “Hate has no place in Brooklyn.” He also said Sibley’s life was cut short by a defendant who could not stand seeing him and his friends “just being themselves.”

Sibley had moved from Philadelphia to New York to pursue dance and choreography, performed with Philadanco and studied through Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension program. About 200 people attended his Philadelphia funeral in August 2023, and tributes came from Beyoncé and Spike Lee. For Black queer communities and LGBTQ advocates, the verdict is more than a punishment tally. It is a test of whether hate-crime laws can still deliver accountability when violence begins with slurs and ends in a killing at a public gathering place.