The police stated they’d classified the fatalities as a detest criminal activity after the stays of two lady are within a badly burned automobile a week ago.
A week after the bodies of two transgender females are within a severely burned vehicle in Puerto Rico, the police said Thursday that they had arrested two males relating to the killings along with switched them to the F.B.I.
The boys, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were used into guardianship on Wednesday but I have perhaps not come billed, based on Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of unlawful research when it comes down to police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s east coastline, where in fact the women’s remains had been found on April 22.
The guy mentioned the F.B.I. had absorbed the truth and got investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
“We is classifying it a dislike crime simply because they comprise socializing using sufferers, and once they revealed these were transgender women, they decided to kill all of them,” master Morales said on Thursday.
The police mentioned they certainly were waiting for autopsy leads to figure out how the women had been killed. Activists have recognized the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two pals whom lived-in nyc. Her stays are receive after an individual known as 911 to report a burned car under a bridge on a desolate path in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, master Morales mentioned.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon have been interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez about evening before they certainly were killed and were taped using one regarding the women’s social networking reports, chief Morales stated.
The guy said the police had furthermore fastened Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon toward killings through security camera footage and “scientific research,” which he decreased to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to taking part in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed themselves in, he mentioned.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for all the F.B.I.’s San Juan industry office, declined to talk about the arrests but stated the bureau routinely collaborates with local, county and federal firms.
“The agency try and will often be interested in criminal behavior which might drop within national jurisdiction,” she stated. “However, our plan is actually we do not confirm or refute the existence of research, to guard the ethics of any feasible investigative work.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon could not immediately become reached for comment on Thursday evening, plus it wasn’t straight away clear if they have solicitors.
When the guys are charged, it could represent a switching point in the control of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, which has a disturbing history of violence against gay and transgender anyone, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez happened to be the third and fourth transgender people murdered in Puerto Rico in the last 2 months, activists mentioned. These were furthermore thought to be the 7th and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to have now been killed in america this season, in line with the individual liberties venture.
Prior to now 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. men and women have become killed in Puerto Rico, per Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay rights activist. Just about three associated with the deaths continue to be unsolved, the guy said.
“These arrests include one step for the correct movement, however these murders need to be prosecuted as detest crimes,” Mr. Serrano said. “We need the federal government in order to complete the investigations for the different seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. folk in the isle and offer justice for many of them.”
Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez when you look at the Bronx. Both had not too long ago traveled to Puerto Rico, and so they had been likely to travel back into ny later this period, per family and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon were arrested after a nearby broadcast place submitted images of them on myspace and folks started to name the section to identify all of them.
“We is extremely appreciative on the perform your authorities and community input locate whom did this,” she said on Thursday.
She mentioned the photographs originated two video that Ms. Pelaez got posted on the Snapchat and Facebook account, which confirmed her and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“I noticed the clips, and it also appeared like they certainly were hanging out collectively as family,” she stated. “It appeared typical. There clearly was musical playing for the back ground. Everybody felt great.”
She stated the police have informed her group just that boys happened to be in federal guardianship.
The killings emerged four weeks after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, was actually slain in Moca, P.R., in line with the individual legal rights venture.
In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social media who had been transgender and homeless, ended up being shot to death after a McDonald’s visitors reported that Ms. Negron got spied on her in the women’s place.
Ms. Negron’s best times — framed within the headlights of a car amid a cackle of laughter — were submitted on social media lesbian american dating in Houston marketing, an undeniable fact that activists said underscored the impunity homophobic attackers become whenever committing such crimes.
