Subj : ARRESTS MADE OVER TRANS WOMEN MURDERS IN PUERTO RICO
To : All
From : Major Queen
Date : Mon May 04 2020 02:23 pm
MAY 4, 2020 SOURCE EXPRESS
Two men have reportedly been arrested in relation to the murders of
transgender women whose burned bodies were found in Puerto Rico on April 22.
The Puerto Rican authorities made the arrests of Juan Carlos Pag�n Bonilla,
21, and Sean D�az de Le�n, 19 on April 29, but they have yet to face official
charges, according to The New York Times.
The arrests came one week to the day after 21-year-old Layla Pel�ez, of the
Bronx, and 32-year-old Serena Angelique Vel�zquez, of Queens, were found in a
burned car under a bridge on a remote road in Humacao, which is on the
eastern side of the island. The women had been visiting their hometown in
Puerto Rico at the time of their deaths.
Bonilla confessed to having a role in the killings, Puerto Rican LGBTQ
activist Pedro Julio Serrano told Gay City News on May 1, and de Leon turned
himself in.
While it was previously reported that the women were also found to have been
shot, that detail is not confirmed, Serrano said. Police were awaiting
autopsy results that they hoped would provide more information about how the
women died.
Bonilla and de Le�n were with the women hours before they were found dead and
they were featured in a recording on one of the women's social media
accounts, investigators said. Authorities are utilizing surveillance video
footage and "scientific evidence" to make their case.
The Times reported that Captain Teddy Morales, who leads criminal
investigations in the Humacao region, said the case is being classified as a
hate crime because authorities determined the men were socializing with the
women and set out to kill them when they learned they were transgender. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting in the case.
Following the arrests, Serrano expressed some cautious optimism that justice
will be done but maintained his calls for a thorough probe of the case and
reminded authorities to be fair in their prosecution.
"These arrests are a step in the right direction, but these murders have to
be prosecuted as hate crimes," Serrano said.
"We must warn that Puerto Rico prohibits the death penalty in our
constitution and we call upon federal authorities in Puerto Rico not to
impose the death penalty on this case or any case. An eye for an eye will
make us all blind."
Serrano is also maintaining a spotlight on other murders on the island, where
more than a half-dozen LGBTQ people have been slain in the past year. He has
often voiced concerns that probes into the deaths of LGBTQ individuals on the
island have either been botched by authorities or not investigated as
thoroughly as possible.
"We urge the government to finish the investigations in the other seven
murders of LGBTQ people on the island and serve justice for all of them,"
Serrano stressed on May 1.
