Two men indicted for killing two transgender women in Puerto Rico on April 21 have already been charged under the federal hate crimes law.

In relation to this, an affidavit which Lazaro Duprey-Ojeda, a Special FBI Agent signed, and the Justice Department released on Friday, stated that 19-year-old Sean Diaz reportedly "wanted to shoot and kill" Layla Pelaz when the latter told him she was trans after their sexual relations at her Las Piedras home.

Las Piedras is located at a municipality which the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. Also, in the affidavit, it was noted that 21-year-old Juan Carlos Pagan Bonilla and Serena Angelique Velazquez had sexual relations, too, inside the home of Pelaz.

The said sworn statement said the 19-year-old old Pagan that Velasquez too was a trans. More so, Diaz reaffirmed to the 21-year-old that he wanted to kill both Pelaz and Velasquez for tricking them by not telling them they were transgender when they had sexual relations.

While Pelaz, also identified as Victim 2, attempted to calm Diaz down and suggested that all four of them get some more marijuana so they could "smoke and talk a little more."

Diaz, according to the affidavit, pulled Pagan aside and told him to accept Victim 2's proposal to go out. It was then their plan that Diaz would shoot Pelaz and Velasquez the moment they approached the highway.

The Victims Shot and Killed

In the said affidavit, it was also noted that Pelaz gave Pagan her car keys. It was also stated in the same sworn statement that the two victims were shot and killed by Diaz while Pagan drove the vehicle of Pelaz.

Moreover, Diaz reportedly drove the car to a place under a Humacao bridge. Humacao is a municipality bordering Las Piedras. Duprey-Ojeda, on the other hand, stated that the two Puerto Rico men set the car on fire while the two trans women shot and killed were inside it.

Specifically, Diaz and Pagan allegedly filled the vehicle with garbage they found in the nearby area to make it more flammable. Then, after that, the two set the car on fire, intending to destroy any proof of their involvement in the crime.

Meanwhile, the police department in Puerto Rico announced on April 29, the arrests of Pagan and Diaz, linking to the trans women's murder.

They are the first two suspects in Puerto Rico ever indicted under the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act" that former US President Barack Obama signed in 2009.

According to the Justice Department, Pagan and Diaz are currently under federal custody. Additionally, they have been indicted by a criminal complaint with carjacking, as well as carrying and using a firearm, in the federal district court.

The charges had something to do, too, with the crime of violence related to the two transgender women's death. And if convicted, both Pagan and Diaz, according to the statement the department released, could be punished with the death penalty.

Two of the Five Murdered Trans People

Pelaz and Velazquez are only two of the five trans individuals to be killed in Puerto Rico this year. Before the two's killing, a homeless trans woman, Alexa Negron Luciano, was brutally murdered on February 24, in Toa Alta, a few hours after police responded to a report that she peeped on people inside the restroom of a fast-food restaurant.

Two months later, another transgender woman, Penelope Diaz Ramirez, was murdered inside a jail in Bayamon. Then, on March 5, a transgender man, Yampi Mendez Arocho, got killed in Moca.

Check these out!