As previously reported by REVOLT, a 17-year-old was taken into custody on Friday (Aug. 4) after being accused of fatally stabbing O’Shae Sibley in Brooklyn back in July. Witnesses claimed that while the 28-year-old was voguing to Beyoncé’s music with friends at a Mobil gas station, the teenager began hurling homophobic slurs while stating his religious affiliation to be Muslim. Police said that things became physical and a knife was drawn and used on Sibley, who was pronounced dead after being rushed to nearby Maimonides Medical Center.

On Saturday (Aug. 5), New York City Mayor Eric Adams visited the site of the stabbing while sharing a statement of his own via Twitter. “O’Shae Sibley’s murder was a hate crime. Period,” his message read. “He should still be alive today, but the joy he brought his community will never be forgotten. While nothing can bring him back, today we can confirm his killer has been taken into custody and will face justice.”

On Monday (Aug. 7), PIX 11 identified the suspect as Dmitriy Popov, who is being charged as an adult for murder, a hate crime, and criminal possession of a weapon. Speaking to the news outlet, his attorney, Mark Pollard, described Popov as “a good Christian boy” whose parents are of Russian origin. Pollard added that he is “a high school senior who works two jobs and has never been in trouble before.” Speaking to the New York Daily News, Popov’s grandmother claimed that her grandson “wears a cross and loves the Black woman married to his older brother.”

“Really, I just want my son back. I know that’s not possible,” said O’Shae Sibley’s mother, Onetha Sibley, in a phone interview with PIX 11, “I’m gonna miss that soul. But I hope justice is served because this is tragic. It didn’t have to happen.”

Popov faces 20 years to life if convicted of the charges.