Two Arrested in Killings of Transgender Women in Puerto Rico

The authorities said they had classified the deaths as a hate criminal activity after the keeps of two female are present a severely burned vehicle last week .

Per week following the bodies of two transgender people had been present a badly burned auto in Puerto Rico, law enforcement stated Thursday that they got detained two boys relating to the killings along with switched all of them up 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 started recharged, in accordance with Capt. Teddy Morales, the principle of violent research your authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where the women’s keeps were entirely on April 22.

He mentioned the F.B.I. have bought out your situation and was examining Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil rights violations.

“We become classifying it a dislike criminal activity because they comprise socializing making use of subjects, and once they revealed these people were transgender girls, they chose to kill all of them,” head Morales stated on Thursday.

The authorities stated they certainly were waiting around for autopsy results to regulate how the women was in fact slain. Activists have identified the women as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two family just who stayed in New York City. Their own remains happened to be located after someone called 911 to submit a burned vehicle under a bridge on a desolate path in Humacao, before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales said.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was basically socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez on night before they certainly were murdered and comprise taped on one of the women’s social networking records, head Morales stated.

The guy said law enforcement got furthermore fastened Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon towards the killings through security camera footage and “scientific evidence,” that he decreased to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to taking part in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon turned himself in, the guy stated.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman when it comes down to F.B.I.’s San Juan field workplace, declined to talk about the arrests but said the bureau consistently collaborates with local, state and national companies.

“The agency is and certainly will be into violent make that could drop within federal jurisdiction,” she said. “However, all of our plan is we really do not confirm or deny the existence of research, to guard the ethics of every possible investigative work.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon would never right away end up being achieved for discuss Thursday nights, plus it wasn’t right away clear should they had lawyers.

When the men are billed, it might signify a flipping reason for the managing of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which has a disturbing reputation for assault against homosexual and transgender men, activists mentioned.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez are the 3rd and 4th transgender someone slain in Puerto Rico in the last two months, activists stated. These people were also thought to be the seventh and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming men and women to were murdered in the usa this present year, in accordance with the people liberties Campaign.

Previously 15 months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. folks have been slain in Puerto Rico, based on Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay rights activist. Just about three with the deaths remain unresolved, he stated.

“These arrests tend to be one step inside the correct direction, nevertheless these murders have to be prosecuted as detest crimes,” Mr. Serrano stated. “We desire the us government to finish the research inside different seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. group from the area and provide justice for many of them.”

Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez within the Bronx. Both have not too long ago moved to Puerto Rico, and so they had been looking to fly back once again to nyc later this thirty days, per loved ones and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s relative, said Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon happened to be detained after a nearby broadcast facility posted images of these on myspace and people began to contact the place to understand them.

“We include very appreciative of work that the authorities and society put in to acquire just who did this,” she said on Thursday.

She stated the photographs came from two films that Ms. Pelaez have uploaded on the Snapchat and myspace account, which showed the girl and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“we spotted the video clips, plus it seemed like they were spending some time together as family,” she stated. “It seemed normal. There is tunes playing for the history. Everybody Else appeared good.”

She mentioned the authorities have told her families only the males are in national guardianship.

The killings came monthly after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, was killed in Moca, P.R., in line with the peoples liberties venture.

In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media who had been transgender and homeless, was recorded to passing after a McDonald’s consumer complained that Ms. Negron got spied on her inside women’s room.

Ms. Negron’s best times — framed in the headlights of an automible amid a cackle of fun — had been uploaded on social media marketing, a fact that activists said underscored the impunity homophobic assailants feel when committing these crimes.