"They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt."
Bad Bunny did more than just perform his song "Ignorantes" on Thursday's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," he made a powerful statement about the hunting and killing of a trans woman in Puerto Rico.
While belting out the recently released song featuring Sech, the Puerto Rican native wore a skirt and a shirt that read, "Mataron a Alexa, no a un hombre con falda," which translates to: "They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt."
The statement was not only a tribute to the slain trans woman -- Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, better known as Alexa Negrón Luciano -- but also appeared to be a direct criticism of the Puerto Rican police officers who reported that "a man dressed in a black skirt" had been killed.
On Monday, Alexa was shot dead hours after police were called on her for using the women's restroom at a McDonald's.
Cops purportedly received reports of someone "peeping" on people using the restrooms; however they found no proof, and the complainant didn't try to press charges after learning Alexa was homeless.
Trans Woman Hunted and Killed After Using Women's Bathroom, Video Appears to Show Murder
View StoryHowever, when pictures of her being accosted by cops at the fast food restaurant began circulating online, things took a sinister turn; within hours she had been shot dead, and police are now investigating if a video being shared on social media captured the moment she was gunned down.
In the unsettling, 28-second clip below, a number of men in a car can be heard jeering a person dressed similarly to Alexa, as she walks away into the dark and attempts to ignore them.
"Kiss my ass ... we are going to shoot you up," voices can be heard shouting in Spanish. "Before I go, I'm going to stick my wood in you. You think so, motherf--ker?"
And with that, 11 shots can be heard ringing out into the darkness in quick succession.
San Juan-based LGBTQ activist Pedro Julio Serrano condemned the attack as a hate crime, but also criticized the police for exacerbating the problem by misgendering Alexa, after they reported that "a man dressed in a black skirt" had been killed.
"The terrible murder of a trans woman, revealed in a video where she is stalked and hunted, is nothing more than a hate crime motivated by intolerance," he said.
"We must denounce the hate speech of the fundamentalist groups that have promoted a climate where they prosecute and persecute a trans person for the mere fact of using a bathroom."
Human Rights Campaign issued a statement on the tragic death: "This is a horrifying crime that must be investigated with the utmost thoroughness and care. This victim, who has now been identified as Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, was a human being, a member of a community, a friend and family member."
"She had dreams, hopes, hobbies and did not deserve to have her life taken from her. HRC has heard that Ruiz was experiencing homelessness, further highlighting the ways a toxic mix of transphobia and misogyny conspire to put the transgender community at risk of extreme violence," HRC Director of Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative Tori Cooper continued in the statement.
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