The police stated they had categorized the fatalities as a dislike crime following the stays of two female happened to be found in a poorly burned vehicles last week.
Each week following the bodies of two transgender women were within a terribly burned car in Puerto Rico, the authorities said Thursday that they had arrested two boys regarding the the killings along with transformed them to the F.B.I.
The males, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, had been used into guardianship on Wednesday but have maybe not started energized, relating to Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of unlawful research for any authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s east coast, where in fact the women’s keeps comprise entirely on April 22.
He stated the F.B.I. had absorbed the situation and got examining Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
“We are classifying it as a dislike criminal activity since they are interacting aided by the subjects, as soon as they discovered these were transgender lady, they made a decision to kill them,” head Morales mentioned on Thursday.
Law enforcement stated these people were looking forward to autopsy brings about determine how the ladies was basically slain. Activists have identified the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two company who stayed in New York City. Her keeps are found after one known as 911 to submit a burned car under a bridge on a desolate road in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, head Morales stated.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon have been interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez in the night before these people were slain and had been taped on one regarding the women’s social networking profile, Captain Morales stated.
The guy mentioned the authorities had in addition tied Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon towards the killings through security camera footage and “scientific evidence,” that he dropped to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon switched himself in, the guy stated.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman the F.B.I.’s San Juan field company, decreased to discuss the arrests but mentioned the bureau consistently collaborates with regional, state and federal organizations.
“The agency was and will be interested in criminal run which might fall within federal jurisdiction,” she mentioned. “However, our policy is we really do not confirm or refute the presence of investigations, to guard the integrity of every possible investigative efforts.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon would never right away end up being hit for comment on Thursday nights, and it had not been instantly clear should they have attorneys.
If the male is billed, it could represent a flipping point in the managing of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. people in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing reputation for physical violence against gay and transgender anyone, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez comprise the 3rd and fourth transgender men murdered in Puerto Rico in the last 8 weeks, activists stated. They certainly were also thought to be the seventh and 8th transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals currently murdered in the us this current year, according to the person legal rights promotion.
In the past 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. people have become killed in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay legal rights activist. All but three regarding the fatalities stay unresolved, the guy said.
“These arrests were one step when you look at the proper movement, but these murders have to be prosecuted as hate crimes,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We craving the government to complete the investigations in more seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. people from the area and serve justice for many of those.”
Ms. Velazquez lived in Queens and Ms. Pelaez from inside the Bronx. Both had lately journeyed to Puerto Rico, and comprise intending to fly back again to nyc later this period, relating to relatives and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, said Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been arrested after a nearby radio station posted files of them on fb and other people begun to call the section to understand all of them.
“We are super appreciative with the services your officials in addition to area devote to get who did this,” she mentioned on Thursday.
She said the photographs came from two video that Ms. Pelaez have published on the Snapchat and myspace account, which demonstrated the lady and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“I spotted the clips, and it also appeared like these people were spending time collectively as company,” she said. “It felt typical. There seemed to be sounds playing in back ground. Anyone felt fine.”
She said the police had shared with her parents just that the men had been in national custody.
The killings came 30 days after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender man, was murdered in Moca, P.R., in accordance with the peoples legal rights promotion.
In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a popular figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who was simply transgender and homeless, was shot to death after a McDonald’s customer complained that Ms. Negron have spied on her in women’s place.
Ms. Negron’s final minutes — presented in the headlights of an automible amid a cackle of laughter — were uploaded on social networking, an https://datingmentor.org/escort/aurora-1 undeniable fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic attackers become when committing this type of criminal activities.