Puerto Rico police have identified a man shot dead in Mayagüez as George López Díaz, 39, a resident of the Candelaria public housing complex, the director of the Mayagüez Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC), Inspector Joel González, confirmed. López Díaz’s body was found on the morning of Saturday, November 7, in the green area between the Candelaria complex and the pedestrian bridge on PR-2 highway.
The motive remains under investigation. González said López Díaz had lived in New York and Philadelphia, where he had a criminal record for possession of stolen property, aggravated assault and battery, and that there was no arrest warrant for him. He had recently traveled to the island to settle and was being helped by several organizations to obtain housing and government assistance; before his current home he briefly lived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt complex in Mayagüez.
The Puerto Rico LGBTQ+ Federation honored his memory in a statement on Monday, November 9. "George was a trans man who had recently moved to Mayagüez and was vilely killed," said Justin Jesús Santiago, the federation’s director, who called for police to investigate all angles, including a possible hate crime. Pedro Julio Serrano, the federation’s president, said Pupy Hernández López was also killed the previous week, making two LGBTQ+ killings in under 24 hours and four so far this year.
The spokespeople thanked police in San Juan and Mayagüez for activating LGBTQ+ crime protocols and said they await a meeting with Police Superintendent Joseph González Falcón.