The authorities said they had labeled the deaths as a dislike crime after the remains of two people happened to be found in a severely burned vehicles last week.
Weekly after the system of two transgender ladies are present in a badly burned auto in Puerto Rico, law enforcement said Thursday that they got arrested two people relating to the killings along with transformed all of them to the F.B.I.
The males, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were taken into custody on Wednesday but have maybe not become energized, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the main of criminal investigations when it comes down to authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where in actuality the women’s keeps comprise found on April 22.
The guy stated the F.B.I. have bought out possible and ended up being investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
“We were classifying it as a hate criminal activity since they comprise socializing utilizing the sufferers, as soon as they learned they certainly were transgender females, they chose to eliminate them,” chief Morales said on Thursday.
The authorities mentioned these people were waiting for autopsy brings about determine how the women was basically slain. Activists posses identified the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two family just who lived in New York City. Their particular stays happened to be discovered after a person called 911 to report a burned vehicle under a bridge on a desolate road in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales stated.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez on the evening before these people were killed and had been taped on one associated with the women’s social networking profile, Captain Morales said.
The guy mentioned law enforcement got also tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon with the killings through security camera footage and “scientific evidence,” which he declined to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla admitted to taking part in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon turned themselves in, the guy mentioned.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman when it comes down to F.B.I.’s San Juan industry workplace, declined to go over the arrests but stated the agency routinely collaborates with regional, state and federal agencies.
“The Bureau try and certainly will always be enthusiastic about criminal run that could fall within national jurisdiction,” she said. “However, our very own policy is actually we really do not dating services for seniors verify or deny the presence of investigations, to safeguard the ethics of any feasible investigative energy.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon cannot straight away be achieved for discuss Thursday nights, therefore had not been immediately clear as long as they got attorneys.
In the event that guys are recharged, it might signify a turning point in the managing of crimes against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which has a disturbing reputation of physical violence against homosexual and transgender folks, activists stated.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez are the third and fourth transgender men murdered in Puerto Rico in the past two months, activists stated. These people were furthermore considered the seventh and eighth transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals have-been murdered in america this present year, according to the Human liberties venture.
Before 15 months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. folks have already been killed in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay rights activist. All but three of the deaths continue to be unsolved, the guy mentioned.
“These arrests is a step when you look at the right course, but these murders have to be prosecuted as dislike crimes,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We need the federal government to complete the research during the various other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. someone from the area and provide justice for all of these.”
Ms. Velazquez lived in Queens and Ms. Pelaez in Bronx. Both have recently traveled to Puerto Rico, and additionally they happened to be intending to travel back to New York after this month, relating to family members and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, mentioned Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon comprise arrested after a regional broadcast facility published pictures of these on Twitter and individuals begun to name the place to identify all of them.
“We is super appreciative from the perform your authorities and the people invest to find who did this,” she said on Thursday.
She mentioned the images originated in two video clips that Ms. Pelaez have uploaded on the Snapchat and Twitter accounts, which demonstrated her and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“we spotted the movies, plus it seemed like these people were spending time along as friends,” she said. “It felt normal. There seemed to be songs playing in the back ground. Everyone appeared great.”
She said the police have informed her group just that the males happened to be in federal custody.
The killings arrived 30 days after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender guy, had been murdered in Moca, P.R., according to research by the peoples liberties Campaign.
In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social networking who was transgender and homeless, had been shot to dying after a McDonald’s visitors reported that Ms. Negron have spied on her behalf in women’s space.
Ms. Negron’s last minutes — presented in headlights of a vehicle amid a cackle of fun — are posted on social media, a fact that activists mentioned underscored the impunity homophobic attackers become when committing these types of crimes.