Only 10 days into the New Year, and Latin Trap artist Kevin Fret joins the already growing list of 24 homocides in Puerto Rico this year. The 24-year old, outspoken advocate for the LBGT+ community was gunned down Thursday morning as he rode a motorbike in the capital San Juan.

In a statement, Fret’s manager said: “Kevin was an artistic soul, a big-hearted dreamer. His passion was music, and still had a lot to do. This violence must stop. There are no words that describe the feeling we have and the pain that causes us to know that a person with so many dreams has to go. We must all unite in these difficult times, and ask for much peace for our beloved Puerto Rico.”

Fret was seen as a trailblazer in Latin trap, a Spanish-language subgenre of the hip-hop style in which homophobia and machismo are commonplace.

In an article in April last year, New York fashion and culture magazine Paper described him as “Latin trap’s first openly gay pioneer”.

“I’m a person that doesn’t care what anybody has to say,” he told the publication. “Young gay guys or young lesbians that are looking at me now like a role model, like wow, if he did it, and he don’t care what anybody else has to say, I can do it.”