Philadelphia giving final farewell to dancer O'Shae Sibley killed in NYC
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A final farewell was held Tuesday for O'Shae Sibley, the former Philadanco! dancer who was killed late last month outside a Brooklyn gas station.
Mourners gathered at The Met Philadelphia for a viewing followed by a celebration of life ceremony.
Family and friends of Sibley as well as those who simply heard about what happened to him expected to be here Tuesday.
From New York to here in his hometown of Philadelphia, people have been coming together asking for justice in Sibley's honor.
"I'm just here to support my community. I'm also part of the LGBT community. I know very well what it's like to be involved with homophobia," Rasean Lopez said. "Just the aspect of homophobia, the fact that it's still occurring, that it's still going on. It just makes me mad. Why can't we just be ourselves without being bothered? Without being killed? Without being harassed? Why can't we just be us?"
Authorities say Sibley was dancing and voguing with friends at a gas station in the Midwood section of Brooklyn when another group started taunting him, yelling homophobic slurs.
That verbal confrontation turned violent and the 28-year-old was stabbed and later died.
Police have since arrested a 17-year-old high school student on a hate-motivated murder charge.
"What happened to him was definitely a hate crime," Clifvonne Kelly said. "It wasn't an alleged hate crime, it was a hate crime. It was evil, it was disgusting. But look at all the love."
Sibley was a beloved dancer who danced for Philadanco! here in Philadelphia before moving to New York. He was a student at the Ailey Extension of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York.
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Activists say this should have never happened to him.
"It's got to change," Julio Bradford said. "And I asked before the service even started, I told the young people in the community that they need to come out and support because it could happen to one of them at any time. It could happen to me."
"Any human that enjoys something and they lose their life over it, we should put an emphasis on it," an activist said in New York after a gathering to mourn Sibley, held at the gas station where he was killed.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office also released a statement through their LGBTQ+ advisory committee:
"Bigotry and violence cannot be tolerated by law enforcement or government institutions anywhere. We join grieving members of the queer community across the nation in demanding swift and thorough justice for those responsible for O'Shae's death."