CRIME
Homeless Trans Woman Murdered in Puerto Rico
Bathroom hysteria, social media outrage fuel violent slaying
BY MATT TRACY
A homeless transgender
woman who was the
subject of transphobic
ridicule on social media
in Puerto Rico on February
23 was murdered in a community
near San Juan hours after she was
falsely accused of “peeping” on others
in a women’s bathroom.
Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, also
known as Alexa, was spotted at a
McDonald’s restaurant talking to
a police offi cer after someone said
she was snooping on others in the
bathroom — a claim that was later
dropped.
But it was too late. The false
claim made its way to social media
platforms and immediately went viral,
prompting some on the island
to go after Ruiz. Within hours, a
group of males found her, spouted
transphobic rhetoric, and shot and
killed her in Toa Baja in a disturbing
scene that was caught on video
and circulated widely.
“Her picture was shared and
they said she was accused of peeping,”
Pedro Julio Serrano, an LGBTQ
activist in Puerto Rico, told
Gay City News in a phone interview.
“The video showed killers
saying, ‘We’re going to kill you.’”
Police apprehended one suspect
at the airport as he tried fl eeing
the island and three others are
under investigation, according to
Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, a transgender woman also known as Alexa, was murdered by a gang of men acting
in a transphobic rage in Puerto Rico.
Serrano, who said he heard law
enforcement is moving quickly.
At this point, Serrano said it is
his understanding that authorities
are investigating the case as a hate
crime. Governor Wanda Vázquez,
who rose to power last year after
former Governor Ricardo Rosselló
resigned in disgrace in the wake
of homophobic and misogynistic
chats leaked to the public, said in
a tweet the case would be handled
with sensitivity and diligence.
Lambda Legal joined in on efforts
to encourage authorities on
the island to probe the case.
TWITTER
“This is a horrifi c murder, one
that by all appearances was motivated
by bigotry and transphobia,”
said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a senior
attorney at Lambda Legal. “A
transgender woman in Puerto Rico
was mocked, harassed, and then
murdered for the simple act of using
the women’s bathroom — the
one consistent with her identity.
We must recognize: Bigotry kills.
Transphobia kills.”
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor
of San Juan and a gubernatorial
hopeful in this year’s election,
praised Serrano in a tweet for his
efforts at spotlighting Ruiz’s murder
and stressed that the lives of
transgender individuals must be
valued the same as anyone else.
The community’s response to
the murder has been swift. Dozens
of organizations huddled together
for a press conference on February
25, where advocates called on authorities
to investigate the case as
a hate crime, demanded that fundamentalist
religious leaders stop
perpetuating transphobic narratives
about bathrooms, and asked
politicians to step up and address
the problem.
“We need to stop,” Serrano said.
“This is violence against our community.
We are LGBTQ people as
human beings like anyone else and
we deserve to live with dignity.”
Serrano said that Ruiz’s former
neighbors in Carolina, a community
just east of San Juan, recounted
that she suffered from harassment
and mistreatment by her family,
who kicked her out of the house
leading to her homelessness.
Ruiz is the latest transgender
woman to suffer a violent death
under circumstances that are not
uncommon among trans women of
color in the US. The Human Rights
Campaign tallied 26 documented
violent murders of transgender
individuals across the nation last
year, most of them trans women of
color, and at least two, including
Ruiz’s, so far this year.
Queens Man Guilty of Slay Attempt on Trans Girlfriend
David Viltus faces a decade behind bars after violent attack in sex traffi cking case
BY MATT TRACY
A 30-year-old man from
Queens pleaded guilty
to attempted murder after
he forced his transgender
girlfriend into sex traffi cking
and physically abused her, Queens
District Attorney Melinda Katz announced.
David Viltus of Cambria Heights,
who pleaded guilty on February 27
to second-degree attempted murder,
forced his 29-year-old girlfriend to
have sex with strangers for money
and then stole the cash she made,
according to prosecutors. When his
girlfriend refused to continue going
along with Viltus’ scheme, he violently
attacked her.
The victim was found in front
of the Hillside Hotel in Jamaica,
Queens, on April 18 of 2018 after
Viltus smashed a plant against
her head, threw her against a door,
slashed her face, and punched her
body numerous times.
Furthermore, prosecutors said,
Viltus tried to persuade the victim
to drop the charges against him after
he was busted.
The abuse started in January of
2018, according to a spokesperson
for the Queens DA. It is not clear
whether Viltus originally faced other
charges in the case in addition to attempted
murder, but a Katz spokesperson
said the DA is consolidating
➤ ATTEMPTED MURDER, continued on p.13
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