Law enforcement said that they had labeled the fatalities as a detest criminal activity after the keeps of two females were found in a poorly burned vehicle last week.
Weekly following systems of two transgender ladies were present a severely burned vehicle in Puerto Rico, law enforcement stated Thursday they got arrested two men associated with the killings together with turned them over to the F.B.I.
The people, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were used into guardianship on Wednesday but I have maybe not been recharged, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the main of violent research the authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Ricos east coastline, where in actuality the womens keeps had been entirely on April 22.
The guy said the F.B.I. have taken over possible and ended up being investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
We tend to be classifying it a dislike criminal activity because they happened to be interacting making use of the subjects, and when they discovered they certainly were transgender lady, they chose to eliminate all of them, head Morales stated on Thursday.
The authorities stated these people were waiting around for autopsy brings about determine how the women was basically murdered. Activists need recognized the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two buddies which lived-in New York City. Their own keeps happened to be located after a person also known as 911 to submit a burned vehicles under a bridge on a desolate roadway in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, chief Morales said.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was indeed interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez throughout the evening before they certainly were slain and had been tape-recorded on a single of this womens social media marketing account, head Morales stated.
He stated the police got additionally tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon to the killings through security camera footage and scientific evidence, that he decreased to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed himself in, the guy said.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I.s San Juan area company, dropped to discuss the arrests but stated the bureau routinely collaborates with regional, county and federal firms.
The Bureau is actually and can continually be interested in unlawful behavior that could fall within federal legislation, she stated. However, our very own plan is we really do not confirm or deny the presence of investigations, to safeguard the stability of every feasible investigative effort.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon could not immediately feel reached for discuss Thursday night, plus it had not been immediately obvious should they have attorneys.
When the men are energized, it may portray a flipping point in the management of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, that has a disturbing reputation for assault against homosexual and transgender individuals, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez are the 3rd and next transgender https://datingmentor.org/cheating-wife-chat-rooms/ anyone murdered in Puerto Rico in the last 8 weeks, activists stated. They certainly were furthermore believed to be the seventh and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals being murdered in the us this present year, in line with the person Rights venture.
In past times 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. men and women have come murdered in Puerto Rico, based on Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay legal rights activist. All but three of deaths remain unsolved, the guy said.
These arrests include a step when you look at the proper course, however these murders need to be prosecuted as hate criminal activities, Mr. Serrano mentioned. We craving the government to finish the research from inside the other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. men and women about island and provide fairness for several of those.
Ms. Velazquez stayed in Queens and Ms. Pelaez in Bronx. Both had recently journeyed to Puerto Rico, and so they happened to be planning to travel back to ny afterwards this thirty days, relating to family relations and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaezs relative, mentioned Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon happened to be arrested after a regional broadcast facility submitted photos of these on fb and individuals begun to call the facility to determine them.
We are extremely appreciative of jobs that officials and society input to obtain exactly who performed this, she mentioned on Thursday.
She stated the images came from two video clips that Ms. Pelaez had posted on the Snapchat and myspace profile, which revealed their and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
we watched the clips, therefore seemed like they certainly were spending time together as company, she stated. It appeared regular. There was musical playing during the back ground. Every Person felt good.
She said law enforcement got told her family members merely the boys were in federal custody.
The killings came per month after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender man, got slain in Moca, P.R., according to research by the individual Rights promotion.
In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who was simply transgender and homeless, is recorded to dying after a McDonalds client complained that Ms. Negron have spied on her when you look at the womens place.
Ms. Negrons last minutes presented inside the headlights of an auto amid a cackle of fun are uploaded on social media marketing, a fact that activists mentioned underscored the impunity homophobic assailants think when committing these criminal activities.
