Possible homophobic murder by Muslim at New York petrol station.

This is reported by CBS New York and the New York Daily News. Except I can’t read the Daily News here in the UK but I can read a repetition of their report in the Seattle Times

NEW YORK — The NYPD has identified the man who was stabbed to death outside of a Brooklyn gas station on Saturday night and added the Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.

CBS New York spoke to one of the victim’s close friends on Sunday.

Police said the altercation started as an argument outside a Mobil gas station on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue P in Midwood at around 11:15 p.m. A man seen on surveillance video wearing black shorts came out of Bolla Market after apparently seeing a group of friends dancing. He allegedly directed comments at them, which sparked an argument that ended with a 28-year-old, identified as Sibley Oshae, being stabbed to death.

Oshae was known to be a part of the ballroom community, which is made up predominantly of LGBTQ+ men of color. The NYPD is investigating the caught-on-video killing as a possible hate crime.

The mayhem started when the victim pulled up the the Mobil gas station on Coney Island Ave. near Avenue P in Midwood about 11:15 p.m. Saturday, cops said. He and his four friends, all shirtless in swim trunks on one of the hottest days of the year, got out of their white sedan to pump gas. A friend of the victim in small tight trunks a witness described as “underwear” began dancing.

That’s when a group of men exiting the Mobil station started harassing the 28-year-old victim, clad in pink swim trunks, and his pals, according to Summy Ullah, 32, who witnessed the argument and slaying. “They were saying, ‘Oh, we’re Muslim, so don’t do this in front of me,’” said Ullah. “From that I think it looks like a hate crime.”  “This guy was dancing in underwear and the suspect was like ‘Why are you dancing in your underwear?’”

Ullah says he believes the stabber was motivated by homophobia. “Obviously, they are gay and if they are dancing that’s the problem they had,” he said. One member of the victim’s group walked up to the men, followed by three others, and they exchanged heated words, video obtained by the Daily News shows.

Ullah said he convinced the two groups to calm down and told everyone to step away — but one of the men harassing the victim’s group continued to use his cellphone to record the shirtless men as he cursed them as they returned to their car.

The video shows the stabbing happened in a split second, with the shocked victim still on his feet as a crowd gathered around him.

Medics rushed the victim, stabbed in the torso, to Maimonides Medical Center but he couldn’t be saved.

The killer ran off on Coney Island Ave. and has not been caught. Ullah believes the suspect and his friends frequent a smoke shop down the block. Cops were inside the smoke shop investigating hours after the killing but a man in the smoke shop told a Daily News reporter the store had no connection to the killing.

ABC7 NY has some of the video and some witness interviews below. I don’t know how reliable LLN New York City is but they have a longer series of interviews with witnesses here. 

The young men who were dancing, one of whom was killed, are black; the younger men dressed mostly in black clothes, one of whom wielded the knife, are what I would describe as ‘middle eastern appearance’ but the local witnesses described as ‘Arab’.  One young woman suspected a racial motive rather than a moral prejudice. Whatever, a young man is dead, and some in the comments are interpreting the knifing as self defence.

Police have not made any arrests.