15 Sep
The police said that they had labeled the deaths as a detest crime following stays of two people happened to be present a defectively burned vehicles a week ago.
Per week after the body of two transgender girls were present in a defectively burned auto in Puerto Rico, the police said Thursday that they have detained two males regarding the the killings along with transformed all of them over to the F.B.I.
The men, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, had Hartford escort reviews been used into guardianship on Wednesday but I have not been charged, relating to Capt. Teddy Morales, the principle of violent investigations for your authorities in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s east shore, where in actuality the women’s stays happened to be entirely on April 22.
He stated the F.B.I. have bought out your situation and was exploring Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil-rights violations.
“We are classifying it as a hate crime since they comprise interacting together with the sufferers, and once they discovered they certainly were transgender females, they made a decision to destroy them,” chief Morales said on Thursday.
The police stated these people were looking forward to autopsy leads to decide how the ladies was in fact slain. Activists has determined the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two pals whom lived-in new york. Their unique keeps comprise found after someone called 911 to submit a burned vehicles under a bridge on a desolate path in Humacao, just before 5 a.m. on April 22, head Morales said.
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon were interacting with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez in the evening before they certainly were killed and comprise tape-recorded using one associated with women’s social networking records, Captain Morales said.
The guy said the authorities have in addition tied up Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for the killings through surveillance camera video footage and “scientific facts,” that he decreased to outline. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to playing the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed himself in, he said.
Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman when it comes to F.B.I.’s San Juan industry office, dropped to go over the arrests but said the bureau regularly collaborates with regional, condition and federal agencies.
“The Bureau was and can always be contemplating violent run which might drop within national jurisdiction,” she mentioned. “However, all of our rules is we do not verify or deny the existence of investigations, to safeguard the integrity of any possible investigative efforts.”
Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon would never instantly getting achieved for discuss Thursday night, plus it wasn’t instantly clear as long as they got solicitors.
If the guys are energized, it may portray a flipping point in the managing of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, which includes a disturbing history of assault against homosexual and transgender folks, activists said.
Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez comprise the 3rd and next transgender men murdered in Puerto Rico in the past 8 weeks, activists mentioned. They were also considered to be the seventh and eighth transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals to currently killed in the us this present year, according to research by the individual legal rights venture.
Before 15 several months, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. people have already been slain in Puerto Rico, per Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. All but three of deaths stays unsolved, the guy mentioned.
“These arrests tend to be a step for the right direction, nevertheless these murders need to be prosecuted as detest crimes,” Mr. Serrano mentioned. “We urge government entities in order to complete the research inside the other seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. folk throughout the area and offer justice for many ones.”
Ms. Velazquez lived-in Queens and Ms. Pelaez when you look at the Bronx. Both have recently moved to Puerto Rico, as well as were likely to travel back once again to nyc after this thirty days, based on household members and activists.
Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been detained after a local radio station submitted artwork of those on Facebook and individuals begun to call the place to determine all of them.
“We include very appreciative associated with perform the authorities additionally the society put in to acquire just who performed this,” she said on Thursday.
She mentioned the photographs originated in two videos that Ms. Pelaez got posted on her behalf Snapchat and myspace records, which demonstrated the lady and Ms. Velazquez socializing with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.
“we saw the films, plus it appeared like they were spending time along as friends,” she said. “It felt typical. There is musical playing into the back ground. Everyone Else felt okay.”
She stated the authorities have told her household just the guys are in federal custody.
The killings arrived per month after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender people, is murdered in Moca, P.R., in line with the peoples legal rights promotion.
In February, Alexa Negron Luciano, a famous figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who was simply transgender and homeless, was actually recorded to passing after a McDonald’s buyer reported that Ms. Negron got spied on her in women’s area.
Ms. Negron’s best moments — presented within the headlights of a car amid a cackle of laughter — comprise posted on social media marketing, a fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic assailants believe whenever committing such crimes.