A Missouri teenager who was brutally beaten in what officials called a “deranged display of violence” by another teen is out of the intensive care unit but has limited speech and trouble walking on her own, an attorney for the family said.
Kaylee Gain has been hospitalized since a March 8 fight near Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis that was captured in a viral social media video.
The footage shows several people brawling in the street near the intersection of Norgate and Claudine drives, the St. Louis County Police Department said in a March 11 Facebook post.
Kaylee Gain.Courtesy Bryan Kaemmerer
One person is seen repeatedly punching Gain and slamming her head to the ground. A 15-year-old girl was arrested a day after the fight on assault charges, authorities said.
Police said the victim was found “suffering a severe head injury” and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
In an update Friday, an attorney for Gain’s family said she was out of the intensive care unit and “has been able to engage in limited verbal conversations.”
“Kaylee also recently began speech therapy, and has gone on a few short walks with the assistance of hospital staff as she is still unable to ambulate on her own,” attorney Bryan Kaemmerer said. “However, Kaylee does not have any recollection of the altercation that led to her hospitalization.”
Kaemmerer addressed several social media rumors about the altercation, denying reports that Gain’s mother drove her to the location of the fight.
He said Gain’s mother was at work and was driven to the hospital by a co-worker after police informed her of what happened.
The attorney, however, did confirm reports that Gain had been involved in a fight on March 7 with a different teenager. Both girls were suspended after that incident, Kaemmerer said.
He said it was unclear whether the March 8 brawl was retaliation.
Gain’s parents are calling for the 15-year-old to be tried as an adult. Kaemmerer said in his statement that “the family believes trying the accused as an adult is the most appropriate way to provide the justice that Kaylee deserves.”
Authorities have not said if the 15-year-old would be tried as an adult.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a post on X that the fight was “sickening” and the video was “difficult to watch.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called the actions in the video a “deranged display of violence that must be punished to the full extent of the law.”
On Thursday, police announced that eight more teenagers were referred to St. Louis County Family Court for consideration of assault charges, NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis reported. They include a 17-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy, two 16-year-old girls, three 16-year-old boys, and one 14-year-old girl. None of the teens have been taken into custody.
The heartbroken mother of a Mississippi teen who died after he was run over by a police cruiser last week is mourning the milestones she’ll never get to see her only son achieve.
“I never [will] have the chance, an opportunity, to see my son grow up and become the young man I always knew he was going to be,” Kaychia Calvert said Friday about her 17-year-old son Kadarius Smith.
Kadarius Smith.Courtesy Ben Crump
Smith died after being run over by a Leland police cruiser early March 21, according to attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Calvert, and the city attorney representing police.
The teen’s death has been agonizing, Calvert said.
“He’s supposed to graduate next year. I’m not going to get the chance to see that. He was going to move to Georgia to start his life. I’ll never see that. … If he would have had kids, I will never get the chance to see that. I will never see anything — nothing.”
Crump said that Smith died after a patrol vehicle began chasing the teen as he was running home after police were called to a house he had been at. Smith was hit from behind and had “cruiser tire marks on his back,” Crump said.
Calvert, who did not witness the incident, said a nurse told her 24-year-old daughter about the tire marks.
Crump said the teen died at a hospital.
Calvert said her son and a cousin were at a nearby home about 2 a.m. the day he died. Someone at the home called police after asking Smith to leave amid a dispute, Calvert said.
Smith was on the porch when police arrived, Crump said.
“When the police pulled up to the house … Kadarius took off running,” Crump said. “He was running home, from what we understand.”
Crump said Friday that he’s working to determine if there is video of the incident. The attorney for Leland, a city of about 4,000 residents about 115 miles northwest of Jackson, Miss., could not say if there was any video and did not know if Leland police have dashcams or bodycams.
Crump called the actions of the officer who ran over Smith, who was unarmed, “unconscionable” and said that he and Calvert hope the officer is terminated.
The officer has not been publicly identified.
Crump also accused authorities of trying to sweep the teen’s death “under the rug.”
“As if he was inferior, as if his life didn’t matter,” Crump said. “His life mattered, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
Josh Bogen, who is the city attorney for Leland, on Friday said the officer has been placed on paid leave.
The city’s police department has turned over the investigation to the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, Bogen said. A spokesperson with the state’s Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Highway Patrol and the Bureau of Investigation, said Friday that the highway safety patrol’s accident reconstruction team is assisting with the accident portion of the investigation. The Bureau of Investigation “is not involved in this case,” the agency spokesperson said.
Bogen disputed Crump’s account of how the events unfolded and said that the teen was hit after a call was made to police about an “assault taking place in a home” where the teen had been.
“There was a patrol vehicle that ran over the young man. As to whether he ran over his back, or what happened, that would depend on the investigation,” Bogen said calling the situation an “accident.”
“The idea that the police officer purposely ran over the alleged victim is a complete absurdity,” he said.
Officials with the police department and the department of public safety did not provide any documents or reports about the incident this week.
The county coroner’s office, which determines the cause and manner of death, did not answer respond to multiple calls. Smith, a junior in high school, had plans to move to Georgia with his sister and get into real estate after high school graduation, Calvert said.
She said the death of her “smart,” “outspoken” and “independent” son has been unfathomable.
“I wouldn’t even wish that pain on no one,” Calvert said. “It’s a pain when you lose your mom, or dad or a sister or a brother. But when you lose a child, your only son … ” Calvert said, unable to finish through her tears.
A Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house, violating the conditions of his probation, authorities said.
Ike Nicholas Souzer, 20, was arrested Wednesday in the coastal city of Rosarito by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials after a weeklong manhunt, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He is once again in custody in Orange County.
In a news release, the district attorney’s office described Souzer as an “extremely dangerous and violent criminal.”
Souzer had already served his sentence for stabbing his mother to death in 2017, when he was 13. He was subsequently convicted on a vandalism charge and served a short sentence, then released from custody March 20, prosecutors said.
The judge in that case also sentenced Souzer to two years of probation.
Ike Nicholas Souzer.
Orange County District Attorney’s Office
This was the second time Souzer disappeared from a halfway house. In 2022, he was let out of jail and moved to a halfway house in Santa Ana where he removed his electronic monitor and left. He was later captured by police. In his recent escape, Souzer again cut off his electronic monitoring device, CBS Los Angeles reported.
He also escaped a juvenile detention facility in 2019.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Souzer deserved harsher sentences and blamed judges who have handled his cases.
“This is not someone who deserves a break; he has turned every opportunity to turn over a new leaf into a new opportunity to break the law and defy law enforcement. He did not simply walk away and forget to check in with his probation officer,” Spitzer said in the news release. “The second he was out of custody he set a plan in motion to flee to a foreign country in yet another attempt to escape the consequences of his actions.”
Souzer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of his mother. His defense attorney argued that the killing was in self-defense and said the teen had experienced years of abuse, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Souzer has also been charged with three attacks on correctional officers, possessing a shank in jail, and most recently, drawing graffiti on a freeway underpass, prosecutors said.
Suspect charged in Rockford, Illinois rampage that left 4 dead, 7 injured
Suspect charged in Rockford, Illinois rampage that left 4 dead, 7 injured
03:13
A spring break sleepover turned into sheer horror for three teenage girls who were among the random victims of an alleged spree killer in Rockford, Illinois, a county prosecutor said.
Christian Soto stands accused of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. One of the victims, Jenna Newcomb, 15, died trying to save her sister and her friend, according to Rockford’s mayor.
Officials disclosed the details at a news conference Thursday outlining the case against Soto.
“It’s spring break, girls watching a movie. I can’t even comprehend that,” said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara, choking on these words.
Jenna’s friend, who was only identified by her initials, had spent the night, and the girls were watching a movie in the basement on Wednesday afternoon, Winnebago County Prosecutor J. Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister was in the kitchen fixing something to eat around 1:30 p.m. when Soto entered the home through an unlocked back door off the garage.
Soto, who was covered in blood, grabbed one of Jenna’s softball bats, Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister, who also was not identified, ran to the basement to warn the girls.
Soto followed, cornered them in the room, and began hitting the girls with the bat, Hanley said. Jenna collapsed and lost consciousness.
She never recovered.
As Hanley described the horrifying details, he struggled to keep his composure.
At one point, Jenna’s friend was lying in a fetal position as Soto struck her on her left side.
Suddenly, Hanley said Soto stopped and said he was going upstairs to get a gun.
That’s when Jenna’s friend called the police and then ran outside to find officers already nearby responding to Soto’s ongoing rampage.
Soto told detectives that he entered the home through the open garage and back door, found a bat in the kitchen, and went to the basement to attack the girls, Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister and friend suffered lacerations and bruises, and the sister also was being treated for a fracture.
The bat was discovered in an upstairs bedroom, covered with blood.
John Dodge
John Dodge is a veteran Chicago journalist with experience in print, television, and online platforms.
Latino and Black fathers often underestimate when their teenage sons become sexually active, resulting in delayed education about safe sex practices, a new study found.
The research paper published in the Annals of Family Medicine explored the link between what fathers know about their adolescent sons’ sexual behavior and their guidance on safe sex.
They found that fathers’ perceptions of when their sons are ready for sex correlate with their advice on condom use, which often doesn’t match when their sons actually begin engaging in sexual activity.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing went into the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx and surveyed 191 Latino and Black teenagers, from 15 to 19, as well as their fathers, on the teenagers’ sexual behavior and knowledge.
They found that many Latino and Black fathers often underestimated their sons’ sexual readiness. In addition to age, fathers considered other markers for maturity, such as reaching certain milestones and preparedness for safe sex, before giving guidance on condom use.
“Fathers tended to underestimate that their adolescent son was sexually active, so that isn’t a good predictor. Because it means that the adolescent boy, the young person 15 to 19, could have already started having sex and their dad doesn’t realize that,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, the study’s lead researcher and executive director of the Institute for Policy Solutions at the nursing school, who is also a nurse practitioner.
Researchers suggest that health care providers should encourage families and parents to be preemptive in providing safe sex guidance, well before they perceive their sons as ready to engage in sex.
Sexual activity among adolescents has dropped over the past decade, but, troublingly, so has condom use. At the same time, rates of sexually transmitted infections among young men and unplanned pregnancies among teenagers have increased, researchers pointed out.
Black and Latino communities are disproportionately affected by HIV compared to other racial or ethnic groups, with Black individuals aged 13 and up representing 40% of people with HIV and Latinos 13 and up representing 25% of people with HIV.
Black and Latino adolescents, in particular, are at a unique disadvantage when it comes to accessing health care after negative sexual health outcomes, according to the study.
Parental interventions have proven effective for Black and Latino families and as part of a broader tool to address sexual health inequities, researchers wrote. When parents are involved in their teenagers’ sexual education, the teens are more likely to wait to have sex or to practice safe sex.
However, Guilamo-Ramos said many of his Black and Latino adolescent patients often reported that they wished their parents were more involved in their sexual education.
“I was working with young men, particularly Latino and African American, and I was seeing that there were questions and they were actually areas that they wanted their fathers to actually support them with,” Guilamo-Ramos said. “Oftentimes, the fathers weren’t sure if they should have conversations with their sons about these topics, like their sexual health.”
“I really want Latino and Black families to know that their fathers matter and that fathers play an important role,” Guilamo-Ramos said, “not just in terms of the economics of the household or as a disciplinarian, but that dads matter in terms of the relationship they have with their children, including their adolescent sons.”
For more from NBC Latino, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Transgender Oklahoma student Nex Benedict, who died last month the day after a fight at school, left handwritten notes “suggestive of self-harm” that were found by his family and provided to police, according to a full autopsy report released Wednesday.
The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office ruled Benedict’s death a suicide in a preliminary summary report released on March 13. The report listed a probable cause of death as “combined toxicity” from two drugs, one of which is available over the counter and the other by prescription. However, it didn’t provide any additional details regarding why the medical examiner believed the overdose was suicide.
The full autopsy report notes that Benedict was involved in a physical altercation and had injuries to his head, neck, torso and limbs. These injuries, it found, were not lethal.
The medical examiner also noted that Benedict’s medical history included bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and chronic tobacco and marijuana abuse.
Benedict, who was transgender and used he and they pronouns, according to friends and family, died Feb. 8, a day after a fight at Owasso High School. Benedict had reportedly told his mother that he was bullied at school due to his gender identity. Body camera footage released by police last month shows Benedict lying in a hospital bed following the fight. In the video, he tells a police officer that three students “jumped” him after he threw water on one of them because they were bullying him and his friend for the way that they dressed.
Benedict’s death has drawn international attention and ignited additional backlash from LGBTQ advocates, some of whom believe that the bullying Benedict faced is connected to the dozens of state bills targeting the community in recent years in Oklahoma and other states. In the weeks following Benedict’s death, his friends and classmates led a walkout at school to protest what they described as an unsafe environment for LGBTQ students.
Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler announced last Thursday that there would be no charges filed against the other students involved in the fight. Kunzweiler also noted that the contents of the notes found by Benedict’s family, which he said “do not make any reference to the earlier fight or difficulties at school,” would not be released.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
For more from NBC Out, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Seven American boys are being held in the custody of Jamaican child welfare authorities, more than six weeks after they were pulled from a school for troubled teens because of abuse allegations.
The boys were attending Atlantis Leadership Academy in Treasure Beach, along the island’s south coast, which advertises itself as a faith-based school serving teenagers who are struggling with substance abuse, anxiety disorders and defiant behavior.
Then, according to an email the Jamaican Child Protection and Family Services Agency sent parents last month, the agency received information that children at the program “were being mistreated, amounting to abuse,” and as a result had removed them. The agency planned to work with state child protection services to return the boys to the U.S., according to the email, which a parent shared with NBC News.
The children are being held in Jamaican group homes, according to attorneys working on their behalf.
The Child Protection and Family Services Agency in Jamaica did not elaborate on the type of alleged abuse and said it cannot comment due to the ongoing investigation. It’s unclear how the allegations came to light.
Atlantis Leadership Academy did not respond to requests for comment. In a letter to parents, Randall Cook, the program’s director, said: “With our reputation and transparency, no one could believe something like this could have occurred, nor that we are in any way an abusive organization.”
Do you have a story with NBC News? Contact us
Tarah Fleischman, 59, whose special needs son, Cody, is among the boys pulled from the academy, said she’s frustrated by the long wait to bring her son home to Wisconsin and upset by the mistreatment she alleges her son faced there.
Fleischman met with her son, Cody, after a March court hearing in Jamaica.Courtesy Tarah Fleischman
Cody, 16, who is diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and ADHD, arrived at Atlantis last May and has lost a significant amount of weight since then, she said. Fleischman was not allowed to speak to Cody while he was at Atlantis, but she was able to see him for about an hour last week, and he told her that he had been beaten at the school, according to Fleischman and an advocate who was present.
She regrets sending Cody to the school, which she said quickly agreed to enroll him last spring after several other programs rejected him. She had hoped placing Cody at Atlantis would help him learn to control his aggressive outbursts, and keep both her son and her family safe.
“I’m just so frustrated with the system,” she said. “Unfortunately, I was a desperate mother who got preyed upon.”
The situation has alarmed youth rights advocates who have previously raised concerns that many facilities that are part of the so-called troubled teen industry in the U.S. operate with limited oversight. That has allowed abuse to go unchecked for years in some schools before authorities intervene. State and local agencies have even less oversight when children are sent abroad.
“This is as hidden as it gets,” said Chelsea Maldonado, a consultant with 11:11 Media Impact, the charitable arm of Paris Hilton’s media company, who has been arranging legal assistance for the children and met with Fleischman and Cody last week.
Problems at programs for troubled youth
Atlantis Leadership Academy is a small, private facility for boys that lists no accreditation on its website. Cook, an American who previously worked as a consultant for troubled teen programs domestically, established the school in 2016, according to its Yelp page, and registered it as a business in Idaho. The program charged parents as much as $9,800 a month in tuition, records show, and said it would take in boys that others had rejected.
The Child Protection and Family Services Agency removed the boys on Feb. 8. A week later, a judge in Jamaica denied the program’s request to return the boys and has ordered the school to turn over the students’ belongings, according to an email to parents from the U.S. Embassy.
In a Feb. 27 letter to parents, Cook said that he was “working our back channels” and collecting signatures from locals to show that “we are a good program and need to remain in the community as is.”
The State Department declined to comment. The U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, also declined to comment on the case, but said it works with local authorities to ensure that the child welfare facilities where American children are held “remain as safe and comfortable as possible.”
At the most recent court hearing, on March 15, the abuse allegations were not discussed, according to Fleischman and two attorneys who attended. The seven boys were present but were not called upon to speak, and the judge ordered another hearing to take place in April.
Fleischman said she learned that her son and others had been taken from the facility when one of the boys called her on Feb. 14. In a recording of the call, which she shared with NBC News, one of the boys told her Cody was frequently beaten by the staff at Atlantis Leadership Academy and sometimes went days without food.
“It just feels so surreal,” she said. “I still can’t believe that this happened.”
Tarah Fleischman’s son, Cody, in May, August and December 2023. She says her son has lost a significant amount of weight.Courtesy Tarah Fleischman
She had already been growing concerned about Cody. Her only contact with him was the photos that Atlantis staff sent her, which showed Cody outside during field trips and picking up trash on the beach. She was alarmed by how pale and thin he appeared.
Fleischman called the U.S. Embassy, which she said told her its role would largely be as an observer as the Jamaican legal process played out and provided her with a list of Jamaican attorneys.
Boys at the Atlantis Leadership Academy in Treasure Beach pick up trash.Courtesy Tarah Fleischman
She then sought help on forums for people who had been placed at abusive youth facilities. She got in touch with Maldonado, who became an advocate after her experience at Tranquility Bay, a troubled teen program in Jamaica that shut down in 2009 following abuse allegations. Maldonado connected Fleischman with attorneys who have handled child abuse cases and flew to Jamaica to assist.
“These children were sent to a foreign country where they weren’t allowed to call or talk to anyone,” Maldonado said. “And somehow, because of one parent reaching out to the survivor community, we were able to discover it and find out what’s been going on down here and actually advocate for these children.”
Fleischman said she was the only parent present at the March 15 hearing. When she met with Cody afterward, he asked why she sent him there.
“I just kept saying I’m sorry,” she said. “And then one time he says, ‘I know, Mom, I know.’ So that’s hard to live with — that guilt.”
It’s unclear when Cody may return to Wisconsin. Fleischman said the first time she spoke with her local social services agency was last week, after she called several times to ask about next steps.
The Marathon County Department of Social Services, in Wausau, Wisconsin, told both Fleischman and NBC News it has not heard from Jamaican authorities regarding Atlantis Leadership Academy. The department declined to comment further, citing privacy restrictions.
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families said it is “not aware” of contact from Jamaican authorities.
SAN DIEGO — One of two teenagers charged in connection with the death of a homeless woman texted he intended to go “hobo hunting” prior to the violence, a prosecutor alleged Monday, according to NBC San Diego.
William Innes, 18, faces the most serious charge, first-degree murder, in Monday’s charges against the pair in connection with the homicide of Annette Pershal, 68.
Armed with an air rifle loaded with pellets, Innes fatally shot Pershal in San Diego’s Serra Mesa neighborhood on or about May 8, authorities allege.
A makeshift memorial for the victim Annette Pershal in San Diego, Calif., on Monday.NBC San Diego
Police responded to reports of a woman down in Serra Mesa on May 8 and called paramedics, who couldn’t determine why Pershal was unconscious, San Diego police said in a statement.
She was taken to a hospital, where doctors determined she was shot several times with a pellet gun and that the injuries were not survivable, police said.
Deputy District Attorney Roza Egiazarian said Monday that Pershal was shot in the head, leg, and torso, according to NBC San Diego. One pellet ruptured her aorta, the prosecutor said.
Pershal was declared dead three days after she was found, police said.
Egiazarian said in court Monday that Innes sent a group text to contacts who included his co-defendant, Ryan Hopkins, 19, according to NBC San Diego.
It said, “I’m going hobo hunting with a pellet gun,” according to the prosecutor.
Egiazarian said authorities found the possible weapon, a Gamo Shadow Whisper air rifle, in a search of Innes’ home, according to station.
Innes faces additional charges of possession of an assault weapon, banned in California, and failure to apply for serial numbers for two would-be firearms under state legislation designed to thwart ghost guns, essentially untraceable firearms that can be 3D printed.
Hopkins faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said he drove Innes to the scene of the crime, described by NBC San Diego as a parking lot.
Both teenagers, who live in the area, pleaded not guilty following their arrests last week. They remained in jail without bail, according to jail records.
Hopkins was scheduled to appear in court Thursday, when his attorney, Vikas Bajaj, said he will ask for bail, the station reported.
In court Monday, Bajaj disputed the timing of the “hobo hunting” text, saying it was sent 12 hours after the shooting, the station reported.
He described Hopkins as “a good kid with a warm heart.”
Attorneys for Innes and Hopkins did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
The San Diego County medical examiner’s office determined Pershal’s death was a homicide. The cause of death is pending, and the office is “still working on the case,” county spokesperson Chuck Westerheide Jr. said.
Homicides by air-powered guns are rare. “The literature on air weapon deaths yielded only three murders in the United States,” a 2019 study by the journal Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine found.
Pershal’s death comes as the city’s homeless — a population that has grown beyond 10,000 — face crackdowns by police.
Responding to complaints about block-long encampments on sidewalks and in front of businesses, the city has taken the hardline approach, seen in Los Angeles and elsewhere, of essentially outlawing “unsafe camping” outdoors.
People living on the streets also continue to be victimized. In Los Angeles last year, nearly 1 in 4 murder victims was homeless, NBC Los Angeles found.
The state has set aside at least $12 billion in funding to address homelessness.
Residents and patrons of the area where Pershal, known as Granny Annie, was found unresponsive told NBC San Diego she lived on the streets there for at least seven years.
The 17-year-old charged with murder as a hate crime in the fatal stabbing of O’Shae Sibley, a Black gay man, is alleged to have taunted Sibley and yelled homophobic slurs before the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
He then shut off his phone and shaved his head to evade the law before turning himself into police, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.
The teenager, who was identified in the complaint as Dmitriy Popov, has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon. He has pleaded not guilty, his attorney said Tuesday.
Popov was identified through video, Joseph Kenny, an assistant chief at the New York Police Department’s detective bureau, said at a news conference with Mayor Eric Adams over the weekend announcing the arrest. He turned himself in Friday through an arrangement with his attorney, Mark Pollard.
O’Shae Sibley.Kemar Jewel
Sibley, 28, was a professional dancer and choreographer. He was returning from New Jersey to his home in Brooklyn with four friends on the evening of July 29 when they stopped at a gas station in the Midwood neighborhood, Kenny said. As they got gas, they began dancing, Kenny said, at which point, a male called out to the group and demanded that they stop.
The male is identified in court documents as Popov, whose associates are alleged to have also joined in on the demands for Sibley and his friends to stop dancing. Adams said the group had been dancing to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album.
According to the complaint, Popov and his associates yelled homophobic slurs, and Kenny said they also made anti-Black statements. The complaint alleges Popov and the others said, “Stop dancing here we are Muslim, get that gay s— out of here.”
“We can see on the video a heated verbal dispute quickly turns physical,” Kenny said. “This results in Mr. Sibley being stabbed one time, causing his death.”
The encounter lasted approximately four minutes.
Kenny said Popov pierced Sibley’s chest and damaged his heart, before fleeing in a Toyota Highlander. Kenny said authorities were able to quickly identify Popov with help from other city agencies.
Popov’s attorney said in an interview Tuesday that his client, who appeared in court Monday, did not pretend to be Muslim, as court documents allege.
“I can tell you unequivocally, my client denies that,” Pollard said. “He’s not Muslim.”
Pollard said Popov is Christian and also denies having made anti-Black statements.
“He completely denies it — using any slurs,” Pollard said. “He has many Black friends, and his brother is married to a Black woman. Nothing in his background makes me think he hates Black people or the LGBTQ people, and he denies that.”
Kenny said the group’s anti-Black and anti-gay statements led to the hate crime charge. Based on the investigation, Kenny said Saturday that only Popov would be charged.
Pollard asked that the case be moved to Family Court, a move the district attorney’s office opposed. Judge Craig Walker rejected the request and ordered Popov be held without bail.
Sibley’s death has resonated with many people. Beyoncé paid tribute to him in a post on her official website that read: “Rest in Power O’Shae Sibley.”
Lee Soulja Simmons, executive director of the NYC Center for Black Pride, said over the weekend that he met Sibley in 2017 as a performer in an off-Broadway show about Black pride. He described him as an amazing dancer, who was part of the house and ballroom community.
“The saddest part about it is that we wrestle with death, we wrestle with hate crimes, we wrestle with people within our community constantly facing discrimination,” Simmons said. “Not just because you’re Black but because you represent LGBT. And the fact that he was doing nothing more but vogueing and dancing here, he did not deserve to die in that way.”
Adams shared similar sentiments.
“This is a city where you are free to express yourself,” Adams said. “And that expression should never end with any form of violence.”
A 17-year-old high school student has been arrested on hate crime charges in connection with last weekend’s stabbing death of a professional dancer during a dispute at a New York City gas station.
The teen, whose name was not released, was taken into custody Friday on charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying of 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, officials announced in a news conference Saturday.
In the late-night hours of July 29, Sibley, who is gay, was dancing with friends to a Beyoncé song while pumping gas at a Brooklyn station when he and his friends were confronted by another group, officials said.
The altercation was captured on security video.
“Recovered video showed the victim and his friends being confronted by a group of males and being harassed,” NYPD Assistant Police Chief Joe Kenny told reporters Saturday.
“We can see on the video a heated verbal dispute quickly turns physical,” Kenny said.
Kenny disclosed that the group demanded that Sibley “stop dancing,” and “called him derogatory names, and used homophobic slurs against him. They also made anti-Black statements, all while demanding that they simply stop dancing.”
The harassment continued for about four minutes. The suspect then stabbed Sibley once in the chest with a “sharp object.” Sibley fell to the ground as the suspect fled in a Toyota Highlander.
Sibley was rushed to a local hospital, where he died of his wounds in the early morning hours of July 30.
The suspect, who attends a Brooklyn high school, was “quickly identified” by authorities, Kenny said, and his surrender was “arranged through his attorney.”
Kenny said the suspect “is being charged solely” at this time, with no immediate plans to charge the others that were in his group.
Sibley was a well-known dancer who was part of the ballroom community, which is predominantly made up of LGBTQ+ men of color.
An outpouring of support for O’Shae and his family has been widespread throughout social media across the country, with even Beyoncé herself posting about Sibley’s death on her website.
“This is a city where you are free to express yourself, and that expression should never end with any form of violence,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday.
A rally honoring Sibley was held in Brooklyn on Friday. A memorial and candlelight vigil organized by the LGBTQ community was also being held Saturday night.
