US: 'They're hunting us': Two killed in Puerto Rico were trans women, activists say

By The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Activists said Thursday that the two bodies found inside a charred car in southeast Puerto Rico were of transgender women, marking four such deaths in the past two months. The women were identified as 21-year-old Layla Peláez and 32-year-old Serena Angelique Velázquez, according to the Broad Committee for the Search for Equity.

“They are hunting us,” Pedro Julio Serrano, a spokesman for the group, said in a phone interview.

Authorities found the car before dawn on Wednesday in the coastal town of Humacao after receiving a 911 call. Capt. Teddy Morales, who oversees criminal investigations in that district, said in a phone interview that police are investigating whether it was a hate crime and how exactly the two victims were killed. No one has been arrested.

The killings come a month after a 19-year-old transsexual man identified as Angélica Marie Méndez was fatally shot in the western town of Moca and two months after the fatal shooting of a person identified as Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, which Puerto Rico’s governor said was likely a hate crime. The victim’s body was found in the northern town of Toa Baja after a video was made public in which at least two men are heard mocking and threatening a person believed to be the victim followed by gunfire. Read more via NBC