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.
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