The police said they’d categorized the fatalities as a detest criminal activity following the keeps of two people happened to be present in a severely burned automobile last week.
Each week following the bodies of two transgender lady are present a terribly burned auto in Puerto Rico, the authorities said Thursday which they got detained two boys in connection with the killings together with switched them over to the F.B.I.
The men, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were used into custody on Wednesday but have maybe not started charged, based on Capt. Teddy Morales, the principle of criminal investigations for any police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s east shore, where in actuality the women’s remains happened to be available on April 22.
He stated the F.B.I. have absorbed the way it is and is investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for feasible civil-rights violations.
“We become classifying it as a detest crime because they are socializing aided by the victims, and once they realized they certainly were transgender lady, they chose to destroy all of them,” Captain Morales said on Thursday.
The police mentioned they were awaiting autopsy leads to regulate how the ladies was indeed murdered. Activists need identified the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two friends exactly who lived-in new york. Their own stays happened to be located after someone also known as 911 to submit a burned vehicle under a bridge on a desolate highway in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales stated.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was basically socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez regarding the nights before they were slain and were recorded on a single of women’s social media marketing account, head Morales said.
He mentioned the police had also tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon on the killings through security camera video footage and “scientific research,” that he declined to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon switched themselves in, he stated.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman the F.B.I.’s San Juan industry office, decreased to discuss the arrests but mentioned the bureau consistently collaborates with regional, state and Гјst dГјzey buluЕџma siteleri yorumlar federal organizations.
“The Bureau is actually and will often be interested in criminal run that could fall within federal legislation,” she stated. “However, all of our rules is we really do not confirm or refuse the presence of research, to safeguard the integrity of any feasible investigative efforts.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon could not immediately end up being hit for comment on Thursday evening, therefore had not been immediately obvious as long as they got lawyers.
When the the male is charged, it may express a turning reason for the maneuvering of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing reputation for assault against gay and transgender group, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez had been the third and fourth transgender someone killed in Puerto Rico in the last two months, activists said. These were also considered to be the 7th and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to are killed in the usa this present year, according to research by the individual legal rights venture.
Prior to now 15 months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. men and women have come slain in Puerto Rico, relating to Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay legal rights activist. All but three regarding the deaths stays unsolved, the guy stated.
“These arrests is one step within the proper way, nevertheless these murders have to be prosecuted as hate crimes,” Mr. Serrano said. “We urge the us government in order to complete the research in the more seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. visitors on area and provide justice for all ones.”
Ms. Velazquez lived in Queens and Ms. Pelaez in the Bronx. Both had lately moved to Puerto Rico, and are looking to fly to nyc afterwards this thirty days, per loved ones and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, mentioned Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon comprise arrested after a regional broadcast section posted pictures of those on Facebook and folks begun to call the place to spot all of them.
“We is extremely appreciative of the perform that the authorities as well as the society devote to locate exactly who did this,” she mentioned on Thursday.
She said the photographs came from two movies that Ms. Pelaez got posted on the Snapchat and Facebook records, which revealed their and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“I saw the films, and it also appeared like these people were spending some time along as friends,” she mentioned. “It seemed typical. There clearly was music playing into the history. Anyone felt okay.”
She mentioned the authorities had shared with her group just that people comprise in national guardianship.
The killings arrived monthly after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, had been killed in Moca, P.R., according to research by the individual Rights Campaign.
In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social networking who was simply transgender and homeless, was shot to dying after a McDonald’s client complained that Ms. Negron had spied on her behalf during the women’s room.
Ms. Negron’s final moments — framed into the headlights of a vehicle amid a cackle of laughter — had been posted on social media marketing, an undeniable fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic attackers believe whenever committing this type of crimes.
