The 17-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing O’Shae Sibley while he was vogueing at a Brooklyn gas station late last month claimed to be Muslim as he attacked the 28-year-old dancer—but that’s not the truth, according to his attorney and his family. The teenager, Dmitriy Popov, is a “good Christian boy,” his lawyer, Mark Pollard, told New York City’s PIX11 on Monday. Pollard said that Popov, a high school senior, was born in the United States, and his parents are of Russian origin. Popov’s grandmother echoed Pollard’s comments to the New York Daily News, saying he was Christian and wears a cross. The high schooler’s mother told the newspaper her son was a “good boy” who goes to church. According to a criminal complaint, a witness to the July 29 stabbing told investigators that they heard Popov use homophobic slurs during the attack before saying, “‘Stop dancing here. We are Muslim. Get that gay shit out of here.” Popov, who was allegedly caught on video stabbing Sibley in the chest, faces a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime.
