Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of King of the Hill voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said on Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.
Joss’s husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation”.
Initially San Antonia Police, swiftly dismissed claims that the murder of King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation actor Jonathan Joss was a homophobic hate crime, the San Antonio Police Department has started to take the allegations of Joss’ husband Tristan Kern de Gonzalez more seriously.
Was it really a hate crime?
On June 1st at roughly 7:00 pm, SAPD alleges that Joss’ neighbour, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, drove up to Joss’ property and began arguing with the actor before drawing a gun and shooting Joss multiple times before driving away.
Police officers arrested Ceja just one block from the scene of the murder, and they claim that Ceja admitted to shooting his neighbor during the arrest. Ceja has been charged with felony first degree murder.
As Gonzalez declared shortly after the murder, the official story is far from a complete account of both the lead-up to the murder and the heinous act itself. Gonzalez claims that the murder of his husband followed years of homophobic harassment and intimidation, and San Antonio City Council member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez joined Gonzalez in expressing outrage that SAPD had refused to investigate the shooting as a possible hate crime.
Don’t Miss this time – San Antonio Police Are Investigating Jonathan Joss’ Murder
Then, on Thursday, San Antonio police chief William McManus walked back his department’s past claim that there was “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation,” calling the initial comment “premature” and promising that his department is investigating the role that Joss’ sexual orientation may have played in his murder.
“I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that,” McManus said of SAPD’s dismissal of hate crime allegations just a couple days after Joss’ death. “It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.”
McManus further admitted that many LGBTQ+ citizens in the San Antonio community “are feeling anxious and concerned” following the despicable murder, and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
McManus further noted, “The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community.” But, since the state of Texas does not have separate charges for hate crimes, it may still be some time until San Antonio’s LGBTQ+ residents find closure on the concerning nature of Joss’ murder.
“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus explained of the process.
Last night, Pride Center San Antonio held a vigil for community members to mourn Joss and express their solidarity.