Two Arrested in Killings of Transgender ladies in Puerto Rico

The authorities mentioned they’d labeled the fatalities as a dislike crime following the keeps of two girls were found in a poorly burned auto last week.

Per week after the figures of two transgender female are within a badly burned car in Puerto Rico, the authorities said Thursday that they have detained two boys in connection with the killings along with turned all of them to the F.B.I.

The people, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, are taken into custody on Wednesday but have maybe not come energized, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the main regarding criminal investigations your police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where in fact the women’s remains were found on April 22.

He said the F.B.I. have absorbed the scenario and is examining Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for feasible civil-rights violations.

“We become classifying it a hate crime simply because they comprise interacting using the sufferers, and once they learned these people were transgender ladies, they made a decision to kill all of them,” head Morales mentioned on Thursday.

Law enforcement mentioned these were awaiting autopsy brings about decide how the ladies was basically slain. Activists need determined the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two pals who lived-in new york. Her stays comprise receive after someone called 911 to submit a burned automobile under a bridge on a desolate road in Humacao, prior to 5 a.m. on April 22, master Morales stated.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez regarding the evening before they were killed and were tape-recorded on a single associated with the women’s social media marketing records, head Morales mentioned.

The guy said the police have furthermore tied Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon Sapiosexual dating review on killings through surveillance camera footage and “scientific research,” which he declined to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon switched himself in, the guy stated.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for any F.B.I.’s San Juan industry workplace, decreased to discuss the arrests but stated the bureau routinely collaborates with regional, county and federal organizations.

“The agency was and can be enthusiastic about unlawful behavior which might fall within federal jurisdiction,” she said. “However, all of our coverage is we really do not verify or deny the presence of investigations, to guard the ethics of any possible investigative effort.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon couldn’t immediately be achieved for comment on Thursday night, and it also had not been instantly obvious if they have lawyers.

In the event the men are energized, it may express a turning point in the management of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, that has a disturbing reputation for violence against homosexual and transgender individuals, activists said.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez comprise the next and last transgender men killed in Puerto Rico in the last two months, activists said. They certainly were in addition thought to be the 7th and eighth transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to have-been slain in the us this present year, in accordance with the individual Rights strategy.

Before 15 months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. people have started killed in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. Just about three for the deaths continue to be unsolved, the guy mentioned.

“These arrests were a step from inside the correct movement, however these murders need to be prosecuted as detest criminal activities,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We urge the government to complete the investigations during the additional seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. people on island and provide fairness regarding of those.”

Ms. Velazquez stayed in Queens and Ms. Pelaez when you look at the Bronx. Both have not too long ago moved to Puerto Rico, and additionally they were looking to travel back once again to New York afterwards this period, relating to loved ones and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon comprise detained after an area radio place posted files of these on fb and other people began to contact the facility to identify them.

“We become super appreciative of operate that the officials therefore the society place in locate who did this,” she said on Thursday.

She mentioned the photographs originated from two films that Ms. Pelaez had submitted on the Snapchat and Twitter records, which demonstrated this lady and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“we saw the video clips, therefore appeared like they were spending some time with each other as friends,” she mentioned. “It appeared regular. There was sounds playing during the credentials. Folks felt okay.”

She stated the authorities have informed her parents just that people happened to be in federal custody.

The killings came four weeks after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, got killed in Moca, P.R., according to research by the Human Rights venture.

In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social networking who was transgender and homeless, was shot to passing after a McDonald’s buyer reported that Ms. Negron have spied on the within the women’s space.

Ms. Negron’s best moments — framed in the headlights of a car or truck amid a cackle of fun — had been submitted on social networking, a fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic assailants believe whenever committing this type of criminal activities.