NEW YORK (AP) — A jury convicted a man of manslaughter as a hate crime on Monday in the death of O’Shae Sibley, who was killed at a Brooklyn gas station during a confrontation that began with a group of young people shouting racist and anti-gay slurs at the professional dancer and his friends as they vogued to a Beyoncé song.Dmitriy Popov, who was 17 at the time of the killing, testified at the trial that he was just defending himself when he stabbed Sibley, 28, in 2023.Prosecutors said Popov acted out of hate, taunting and jeering at Sibley, then killing him when he reacted to the provocations.The verdict on the first-degree manslaughter charge capped a three-week trial in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The jury, which began deliberation a week ago, also convicted Popov of second-degree menacing, second-degree aggravated harassment and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, but acquitted him of a more serious charge of murder as a hate crime.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a release that it was his “hope that as the LGBTQ+ community celebrates the beginning of Pride Month, this verdict will bring O’Shae’s family, his friends, and the larger community some measure of solace. Hate has no place in Brooklyn.”
