Kevin Fret: Puerto Rican gay rapper aged 24 shot dead

Kevin Fret, a 24-year-old musician and outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, was murdered early Thursday morning.

The musician, described as Latin Trap music's first openly gay artist, was killed in the capital San Juan on Thursday, police said.

Police said a man was shot eight times around 5:31 a.m. while driving a motorcycle and was taken to the Río Piedras Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

According to police, the murder is the 22nd homicide in Puerto Rico in 2019. Police said the killing is under investigation by the criminal investigations bureau in San Juan.

Fret's manager, Eduardo Rodriguez, described the rapper as "an artistic soul" who had a passion for music.

Confirming his death, Rodriguez said: "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."

The rapper's latest video, Soy Asi, has more than half a million views on YouTube.

"I'm a person that doesn't care what anybody has to say," he told online magazine Paper last year.

"[Now I see] young gay guys or young lesbians that are looking at me now like a role model, like wow, if he did it, and he doesn't care what anybody else has to say, I can do it."

Puerto Rico has seen a rise in street crime in recent weeks, which has been described by police on the Caribbean island as a "crisis of violence".