The authorities stated they had categorized the fatalities as a detest criminal activity following the keeps of two lady were present a defectively burned vehicles last week.
Weekly following the body of two transgender women happened to be found in a terribly burned automobile in Puerto Rico, the police said Thursday that they had detained two males regarding the the killings and had turned all of them up to the F.B.I.
The men, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were used into guardianship on Wednesday but I have perhaps not come charged, relating to Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of violent investigations for police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s east coast, where in actuality the women’s keeps comprise found on April 22.
The guy said the F.B.I. have bought out the outcome and had been investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for feasible civil rights violations.
“We were classifying it a dislike crime since they happened to be socializing together with the subjects, as soon as they learned they certainly were transgender people, they made a decision to destroy them,” chief Morales mentioned on Thursday.
The police mentioned they were looking forward to autopsy results to regulate how the ladies were slain. Activists need determined the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two buddies whom lived in nyc. Their particular stays happened to be found after an individual known as 911 to submit a burned auto 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 was indeed socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez from the evening before these people were murdered and had been tape-recorded on one with the women’s social networking records, master Morales mentioned.
The guy said the police have furthermore tied Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon towards the killings through surveillance camera footage and “scientific research,” that he decreased to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to participating in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed themselves in, the guy stated.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for F.B.I.’s San Juan field company, decreased to discuss the arrests but stated the agency consistently collaborates with local, county and federal agencies.
“The agency try and certainly will continually be contemplating criminal make that might drop within federal jurisdiction,” she mentioned. “However, all of our rules are we do not verify or refute the existence of investigations, to safeguard the ethics of every feasible investigative effort.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon could not straight away become hit for discuss Thursday nights, and it had not been straight away obvious when they have lawyers.
When the the male is energized, it can signify a turning point in the control of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing reputation of violence against gay and transgender someone, activists stated.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez are the next and next transgender individuals killed in Puerto Rico within the Honolulu live escort reviews last few 8 weeks, activists said. They certainly were furthermore thought to be the 7th and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals have-been killed in the usa in 2010, based on the peoples Rights Campaign.
In the past 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. individuals have already been slain in Puerto Rico, per Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. Just about three of the fatalities stay unresolved, he said.
“These arrests become one step into the best direction, however these murders need to be prosecuted as hate criminal activities,” Mr. Serrano said. “We need the federal government to finish the research inside different seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. folk throughout the island and provide fairness regarding of those.”
Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez in Bronx. Both have not too long ago moved to Puerto Rico, and comprise about to fly to nyc later on this period, per relatives and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon comprise arrested after a local radio facility submitted photos of them on fb and individuals begun to phone the facility to determine them.
“We are very appreciative on the operate the authorities therefore the neighborhood put in to acquire which did this,” she stated on Thursday.
She said the photographs originated two video clips that Ms. Pelaez had published on the Snapchat and Twitter account, which revealed the woman and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“I noticed the movies, and it appeared like they certainly were hanging out collectively as pals,” she stated. “It seemed typical. There is songs playing in credentials. Every Person felt good.”
She mentioned the police have told her family merely the guys happened to be in federal guardianship.
The killings came 30 days after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender man, is killed in Moca, P.R., in accordance with the person legal rights Campaign.
In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social networking who was simply transgender and homeless, was actually shot to passing after a McDonald’s customer reported that Ms. Negron have spied on the inside women’s place.
Ms. Negron’s last minutes — framed during the headlights of a vehicle amid a cackle of laughter — comprise published on social networking, a fact that activists said underscored the impunity homophobic attackers feel when committing this type of crimes.