Two detained in Killings of Transgender ladies in Puerto Rico
Law enforcement said they had labeled the deaths as a hate criminal activity following the stays of two girls are within a badly burned vehicles the other day.
Weekly after the systems of two transgender girls comprise found in a terribly burned auto in Puerto Rico, over at this site the authorities said Thursday which they have detained two males regarding the the killings and had turned them to the F.B.I.
The males, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, comprise used into custody on Wednesday but I have not been billed, relating to Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of unlawful investigations for any police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coastline, where in actuality the women’s stays comprise found on April 22.
He stated the F.B.I. had taken over the outcome and got investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil rights violations.
“We were classifying it as a detest criminal activity simply because they are socializing making use of the subjects, as soon as they discovered these people were transgender lady, they made a decision to kill them,” Captain Morales stated on Thursday.
Law enforcement stated they certainly were awaiting autopsy leads to figure out how the ladies was indeed slain. Activists have actually determined the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two friends which lived-in New York City. Their own stays had been discovered after people also known as 911 to report 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 was indeed interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez throughout the nights before these people were slain and happened to be tape-recorded on a single with the women’s social media marketing profile, head Morales stated.
The guy stated the authorities have furthermore fastened Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon towards 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 said.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for F.B.I.’s San Juan field company, decreased to discuss the arrests but said the bureau consistently collaborates with local, county and national organizations.
“The Bureau is and will always be enthusiastic about violent conduct which could drop within federal legislation,” she stated. “However, the coverage is we do not confirm or refuse the existence of investigations, to protect the ethics of any feasible investigative efforts.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon cannot straight away getting achieved for discuss Thursday night, also it wasn’t straight away obvious when they got attorneys.
If the male is recharged, it may express a switching part of the managing of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, which has a disturbing history of assault against homosexual and transgender visitors, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez are the 3rd and last transgender someone killed in Puerto Rico in the past 2 months, activists said. They certainly were also considered the seventh and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to being slain in america this present year, in line with the peoples Rights promotion.
Previously 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. men and women have become killed in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. All but three in the deaths remain unsolved, he stated.
“These arrests is one step in the best path, but these murders need to be prosecuted as hate criminal activities,” Mr. Serrano stated. “We craving the government in order to complete the investigations inside different seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. folks regarding island and offer justice for several ones.”
Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez for the Bronx. Both got not too long ago journeyed to Puerto Rico, plus they are looking to travel back again to New York later this period, relating to family unit members and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, said Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon happened to be arrested after an area radio facility posted graphics ones on Facebook and people started initially to name the facility to understand them.
“We is extremely appreciative associated with the perform that the authorities and also the community put in to obtain which did this,” she stated on Thursday.
She said the photographs came from two films that Ms. Pelaez had posted on the Snapchat and Twitter account, which showed the girl and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“we spotted the video, and it appeared like these people were spending time collectively as company,” she stated. “It appeared regular. There was songs playing during the back ground. Everybody seemed great.”
She stated the police have informed her families only that the males had been in national custody.
The killings came a month after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, was murdered in Moca, P.R., in accordance with the people liberties strategy.
In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who was simply transgender and homeless, had been shot to demise after a McDonald’s consumer reported that Ms. Negron got spied on her in women’s area.
Ms. Negron’s last minutes — framed from inside the headlights of an auto amid a cackle of laughter — were submitted on social media, an undeniable fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic attackers believe when committing these types of crimes.