The authorities said they had categorized the deaths as a detest criminal activity after the remains of two female happened to be present a badly burned vehicles last week.

Weekly after the systems of two transgender female are present in a badly burned vehicle in Puerto Rico, the police said Thursday they got detained two people regarding the the killings and had transformed them to the F.B.I.

The males, Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla, 21, and Sean Diaz de Leon, 19, were taken into guardianship on Wednesday but I have maybe not started energized, per Capt. Teddy Morales, the chief of violent research when it comes to police in Humacao, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast, where in fact the women’s stays were entirely on April 22.

He mentioned the F.B.I. have bought out the way it is and was actually investigating Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon for possible civil rights violations.

“We include classifying it a hate crime simply because they are interacting utilizing the victims, and when they revealed they certainly were transgender lady, they chose to destroy them,” Captain Morales stated on Thursday.

The police said these were awaiting autopsy leads to regulate how the ladies was slain. Activists posses identified the ladies as Layla Pelaez, 21, and Serena Angelique Velazquez, 32, two company which stayed in new york. Her stays comprise discover after someone also known as 911 to document a burned automobile under a bridge on a desolate highway in Humacao, prior to 5 a.m. on April 22, Captain Morales mentioned.

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon was basically socializing with Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez from the evening before they were killed and happened to be recorded using one regarding the women’s social media account, chief Morales said.

The guy stated law enforcement have furthermore tied Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon with the killings through security camera video footage and “scientific research,” that he decreased to detail. Mr. Pagan Bonilla confessed to taking part in the killings, and Mr. Diaz de Leon transformed themselves in, the guy stated.

Limary Cruz-Rubio, a spokeswoman your F.B.I.’s San Juan area workplace, declined to go over the arrests but stated the agency consistently collaborates with local, condition and federal companies.

“The agency try and will always be thinking about criminal make which might drop within federal legislation,” she stated. “However, the rules is actually we really do not verify or refuse the existence of research, to safeguard the integrity of any possible investigative Geek dating site work.”

Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon couldn’t straight away be attained for discuss Thursday night, also it wasn’t right away obvious when they had solicitors.

In the event the the male is billed, it can signify a switching point in the maneuvering of criminal activities against L.G.B.T.Q. folks in Puerto Rico, that has a disturbing reputation of assault against homosexual and transgender men and women, activists said.

Ms. Velazquez and Ms. Pelaez happened to be the next and 4th transgender anyone slain in Puerto Rico in the past two months, activists mentioned. These were furthermore believed to be the 7th and eighth transgender or gender-nonconforming men and women to have already been slain in the us this year, according to the people Rights Campaign.

Prior to now 15 period, 10 L.G.B.T.Q. individuals have become murdered in Puerto Rico, in accordance with Pedro Julio Serrano, a gay liberties activist. All but three associated with deaths remain unsolved, the guy said.

“These arrests include a step when you look at the correct way, nevertheless these murders need to be prosecuted as hate crimes,” Mr. Serrano said. “We desire the us government to complete the investigations from inside the more seven murders of L.G.B.T.Q. everyone throughout the island and offer fairness regarding of these.”

Ms. Velazquez stayed in Queens and Ms. Pelaez during the Bronx. Both have lately traveled to Puerto Rico, and they are looking to travel to New York after this thirty days, according to household members and activists.

Luz Melendez, 29, Ms. Pelaez’s cousin, stated Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon had been detained after an area radio section uploaded images ones on Facebook and folks begun to name the station to understand them.

“We tend to be super appreciative regarding the jobs the authorities while the community devote to locate which did this,” she said on Thursday.

She stated the photographs originated in two videos that Ms. Pelaez had published on her behalf Snapchat and myspace records, which demonstrated the woman and Ms. Velazquez interacting with Mr. Pagan Bonilla and Mr. Diaz de Leon.

“we noticed the videos, plus it appeared like these people were hanging out with each other as company,” she stated. “It seemed regular. There seemed to be music playing for the credentials. Anyone appeared great.”

She said law enforcement have told her group best that men are in federal guardianship.

The killings came four weeks after Yampi Mendez Arocho, a 19-year-old transgender man, ended up being murdered in Moca, P.R., based on the individual legal rights venture.

In March, Alexa Negron Luciano, a well-known figure on Puerto Rico social media marketing who had been transgender and homeless, was actually shot to death after a McDonald’s client complained that Ms. Negron had spied on the into the women’s space.

Ms. Negron’s last times — framed when you look at the headlights of a vehicle amid a cackle of laughter — are submitted on social networking, a fact that activists stated underscored the impunity homophobic attackers believe when committing these types of crimes.