Beyoncé honors man fatally stabbed at NYC gas station who was dancing to her music

NEW YORK — Beyoncé paid tribute to a professional dancer who was fatally stabbed at a New York City gas station while vogueing to her music on Saturday.

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O’Shae Sibley, 28, was filling up a car with gasoline and was blasting music by the 32-time Grammy Award winner when a group of men approached and told him to stop dancing, The New York Times reported.

The men began using slurs, and Sibley, a gay man who was also a choreographer, confronted them and was stabbed after the argument escalated, according to the newspaper. He was taken to an area hospital, where he later died.

“REST IN POWER O’SHAE SIBLEY,” Beyoncé, 41, wrote on her website.

O’Shae Sibley, a gay man, was dancing while filling up a car at a Brooklyn gas station when men attacked him with slurs and told him to stop. A man stabbed him, and Sibley was pronounced dead at a hospital. A hate crimes task force is investigating. https://t.co/YYxkIH1FTt
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 31, 2023

Sibley worked professionally as a dancer in New York and Philadelphia and belonged to several dance troupes in the region, WNBC-TV reported.

According to the Times, vogueing is a style of interpretive dance that began as an imitation of fashion models in the 1980s and has evolved as an expression of LGBTQ pride and protest.

Police are searching for a 17-year-old believed to be responsible for the fatal stabbing, according to CNN.

Witnesses said that the group that confronted Sibley and his friends did not like the way they were dancing, WNBC reported.

“He had a problem with them dancing, he wanted them to stop dancing, he started arguing with them,” Sayeda Haider, who witnessed the stabbing, told the television station about the alleged assailant. “And then after a few fights and back and forth arguing, he pulled out a knife and stabbed him.”

Heartbroken and enraged to learn about O'Shae Sibley's death this weekend in New York. Despite homophobes' best efforts, gay joy is not crime. Hate-fueled attacks are.https://t.co/XiPuzEgn6T
— Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (@bradhoylman) July 31, 2023

Otis Pena, a friend of Sibley, attempted to stop the bleeding at the scene, the Times reported.

“They murdered him because he’s gay, because he stood up for his friends,” Pena said in a Facebook video posted several hours after the stabbing. “His name was O’Shae and you all killed him. You all murdered him right in front of me.”

No arrests have been made, but the New York City Police Department said that the hate crimes unit is involved in the investigation.

Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a gay state senator in New York, said he was “heartbroken and enraged” over Sibley’s killing.

“Gay joy is not crime,” Hoylman-Sigan tweeted. “Hate-fueled attacks are.”

“It was a senseless crime,” the victim’s aunt, Tondra Sibley, 49, told the Times. “O’Shae has always been a peacemaker. All he wanted to do was dance.”

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