Law enforcement mentioned that they had categorized the deaths as a dislike crime following the stays of two ladies had been present a defectively burned vehicles last week.
Per week following systems of two transgender girls had been found in a badly burned vehicle in Puerto Rico, the authorities stated Thursday that they have arrested two people in connection with the killings and had turned them over to the F.B.I.
The people, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, are taken into guardianship on Wednesday but have maybe not come billed, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of unlawful research for authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern shore, where in fact the women’s stays had been entirely on April 22.
The guy said the F.B.I. got bought out the scenario and was investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
“We were classifying it as a hate criminal activity simply because they had been interacting aided by the victims, as soon as they realized these were transgender lady, they chose to destroy them,” chief Morales stated on Thursday.
The police mentioned they were awaiting autopsy leads to decide how the women have been murdered. Activists have identified the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two buddies which stayed in nyc. Their own keeps had been found after people labeled as 911 to document a burned auto under a bridge on a desolate highway in Humacao, before 5 a.m. on April 22, head Morales stated.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez on the nights before they were murdered and were taped using one for the women’s social networking reports, Captain Morales said.
The guy stated the police had furthermore tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon toward killings through surveillance camera video footage and “scientific facts,” gayhookups.net that he dropped to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to participating in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed themselves in, he said.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman when it comes down to F.B.I.’s San Juan industry workplace, decreased to discuss the arrests but mentioned the agency consistently collaborates with local, county and federal agencies.
“The agency is and can continually be interested in unlawful run that may drop within national jurisdiction,” she said. “However, all of our policy try we do not verify or deny the existence of research, to safeguard the stability of any feasible investigative energy.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon cannot right away be attained for comment on Thursday evening, and it wasn’t instantly obvious should they got solicitors.
If the the male is energized, it can express a turning point in the management of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, with a disturbing reputation for violence against gay and transgender folk, activists mentioned.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez comprise the 3rd and last transgender anyone killed in Puerto Rico within the last few 8 weeks, activists stated. They certainly were furthermore believed to be the seventh and eighth transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to were slain in the United States this current year, according to research by the people liberties Campaign.
In the past 15 months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. folks have been killed in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay legal rights activist. All but three in the deaths remain unresolved, the guy stated.
“These arrests become one step into the proper course, however these murders need to be prosecuted as detest criminal activities,” Mr. Serrano said. “We urge the government in order to complete the research inside some other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. group in the island and offer justice regarding of them.”
Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez during the Bronx. Both had lately journeyed to Puerto Rico, as well as happened to be looking to travel returning to nyc after this thirty days, relating to relatives and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, said Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon are arrested after a local radio station uploaded imagery of those on Facebook and folks started to contact the section to understand them.
“We are very appreciative on the work your authorities and the society put in to locate just who performed this,” she said on Thursday.
She mentioned the photographs originated from two films that Ms. Pelaez had uploaded on her Snapchat and Twitter account, which confirmed the lady and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“I saw the video clips, and it appeared like they certainly were spending some time along as family,” she mentioned. “It felt normal. There is songs playing into the history. Anyone felt fine.”
She stated law enforcement got shared with her household only that people were in national custody.
The killings arrived four weeks after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, got murdered in Moca, P.R., in line with the people liberties promotion.
In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who had been transgender and homeless, is shot to dying after a McDonald’s client complained that Ms. Negron had spied on the during the women’s space.
Ms. Negron’s last times — framed from inside the headlights of an automobile amid a cackle of laughter — happened to be posted on social media, an undeniable fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic assailants believe whenever committing these criminal activities.