Two Arrested in Killings of Transgender ladies in Puerto Rico

The police mentioned they had classified the deaths as a dislike criminal activity following the stays of two female comprise present a defectively burned auto the other day.

A week following body of two transgender ladies comprise present a severely burned car in Puerto Rico, the police mentioned Thursday they had detained two males in connection with the killings and had transformed them up to the F.B.I.

The men, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, are taken into custody on Wednesday but have not started energized, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of violent research when it comes to authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where the women’s stays had been found on April 22.

The guy mentioned the F.B.I. got taken over the case and was exploring Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.

“We is classifying it a dislike criminal activity because they had been socializing with the sufferers, and when they found out they were transgender women, they chose to kill them,” master Morales stated on Thursday.

Law enforcement stated these were waiting around for autopsy brings about regulate how the ladies was killed. Activists have identified the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two buddies whom stayed in nyc. Their stays were located after people labeled as 911 to report a burned car under a bridge on a desolate highway in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales said.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon have been socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez regarding the nights before these people were murdered and had been taped on a single associated with women’s social media marketing accounts, chief Morales mentioned.

The guy said the police had also tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon into killings through security camera footage and “scientific facts,” which he dropped to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to taking part in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon turned himself in, the guy stated.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman when it comes to F.B.I.’s San Juan area office, dropped to discuss the arrests but stated the agency routinely collaborates with regional, state and national firms.

“The Bureau is and will continually be into criminal behavior that may fall within federal jurisdiction,” she stated. “However, our very own coverage is actually we really do not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, to guard the stability of every feasible investigative energy.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon cannot straight away getting achieved for discuss Thursday evening, and it also had not been straight away obvious if they got lawyers.

When the men are energized, it could represent a switching part of the management of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which has a disturbing history of assault against homosexual and transgender men, activists stated.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez happened to be the next and fourth transgender folks slain in Puerto Rico within the last two months, activists mentioned. These were in addition considered the 7th and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming people to have now been killed in the United States this present year, in line with the Human legal rights venture.

Before 15 several months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. individuals have been slain in Puerto Rico, based on Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay legal rights activist. All but three with the fatalities stays unsolved, the guy said.

“These arrests are a step during the right direction, but these murders need to be prosecuted as detest criminal activities,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We desire the federal government in order to complete the investigations in the different seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. men and women throughout the island and offer fairness for every of them.”

Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez during the Bronx. Both have not too long ago moved to Puerto Rico, in addition they were looking to travel back into ny later this period, in accordance with loved ones and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, said Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been detained after a local broadcast facility submitted imagery of them on myspace and other people started to call the facility to determine all of them.

“We were extremely appreciative from the services that the authorities additionally the area place in to track down who did this,” she said on Thursday.

She said the images originated from two videos that Ms. Pelaez have uploaded on the Snapchat and fb reports, which confirmed their and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“I saw the films, therefore appeared like they certainly were spending time collectively as company,” she stated. “It appeared typical. There seemed to be musical playing in history. People appeared okay.”

She stated the police got told free gay hookups her parents just the males are in federal guardianship.

The killings emerged four weeks after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender guy, had been slain in Moca, P.R., in line with the Human legal rights venture.

In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media who was transgender and homeless, got shot to dying after a McDonald’s client reported that Ms. Negron had spied on her inside women’s room.

Ms. Negron’s best minutes — framed in headlights of a car amid a cackle of fun — had been submitted on social networking, an undeniable fact that activists said underscored the impunity homophobic assailants become whenever committing these crimes.