San Antonio police backpedal on initial claim that Jonathan Joss' murder was not an anti-LGBT hate crime
Less than a week after the San Antonio Police Department insisted there was 'no evidence whatsoever' of homophobia in the June 1 shooting death of former King of the Hill actor Jonathan Joss, the city's top cop walked back that claim as 'way, way, way premature.'
'We shouldn't have done it,' SAPD Chief William McManus said at a Thursday press conference. 'It was way too soon, before we had any real information, and I will own that.'
'We understand that many in the LGBTQ+ community are feeling anxious and concerned,' McManus added. 'A lot of it has to do with that premature statement that we released, and again, I own that shouldn't have done it. The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic and most, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community.'
Last Sunday, as Joss, 59, and husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales drove to San Antonio from Austin, where they had recently been living, to check the mail at what remains of their home, which burned down in January. (Kern de Gonzalez said he is certain the blaze was arson. Authorities, on the other hand, have said the cause remains undetermined.) When they got there, the pair was shocked to find the charred skull of one of their three dogs, which had perished in the blaze, placed on the ground 'in clear view,' according to Kern de Gonzales.
The two began crying and screaming, leading to the deadly confrontation with neighbor Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, he said.
In announcing Joss' death on social media, Kern de Gonzales, 23, said there was no doubt the deadly attack was a hate crime. The 59-year-old Ceja, Kern de Gonzales wrote in a Facebook post, 'was someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.'
Still, the SAPD issued a statement a day later saying investigators had found nothing 'to indicate that Mr. Joss' murder was related to his sexual orientation.'
'We take such allegations very seriously and have thoroughly reviewed all available information,' the statement said. 'Should any new evidence come to light, we will charge the suspect accordingly.'
However, Kern de Gonzales subsequently told The Independent that Ceja laughed and spewed homophobic slurs as Joss lay dying.
'Everything was really close range. It was in the head,' Kern de Gonzales said. 'I held his face together while I told him how much I loved him. He could still hear me, he looked up at me and he wasn't able to talk because of the extent [of his injuries], but I could tell he was trying to say, 'I love you.''
This, according to Kern de Gonzales, prompted Ceja to unleash a vile anti-LGBT+ tirade.
'While I'm holding him, he has the gun pointed over me, and he's laughing, saying, 'Oh, you love him? Joto,'' said Kern de Gonzales, who grew up in South Carolina. ''Joto' is Spanish for f****t. I never knew the word until I came to Texas, and then I heard it a lot.'
Joss was pronounced dead at the scene. Ceja, according to an incident report obtained from the SAPD, quickly confessed, telling police, 'I shot him.'
Some 48 hours following the shooting, Ceja, who is now facing a first-degree murder charge, was released from jail on $200,000 bond. He will remain under house arrest, two doors down from where Joss was gunned down, pending trial.
In a follow-up interview with The Independent after Ceja bailed out, Kern de Gonzales said he was not surprised by the turn of events and railed against the SAPD for not having better protected Joss. He said the couple, who married this past Valentine's Day, had lodged dozens of complaints about alleged harassment and threats from Ceja and other nearby residents, to little effect.
Joss had also been the subject of complaints to police by neighbors, who called the cops on the actor more than 50 times in the past year, according to SAPD incident logs. However, while Joss may have at times annoyed people by ' ranting and raving ' in public, Kern de Gonzales said he suffered at times from mental illness but insisted he was never a danger to himself or anyone else.
'I've been in mental health crisis and acted just as Jonathan did, even worse,' he told The Independent. 'The difference was, I was given medical attention and was treated as someone who needed help instead of being seen as a violent threat. Jonathan was never violent, he never went after anybody or threatened anybody's person.'
Joss, who was of Comanche and White Mountain Apache descent, was best known for voicing the part of John Redcorn in the animated series King of the Hill. He also appeared in a recurring role as Chief Ken Hotate on the NBC series Parks and Recreation.
Ceja 'thought he would silence [Joss] and get rid of him, but all he did was make him more powerful,' Kern de Gonzales said. 'Now,' he continued, Joss will instead 'be remembered as a martyr and a legend' among many in the LGBT+ and Native American communities.
Ceja is due back in court on August 19. His court-appointed lawyer, Alfonso Otero, did not respond to a request for comment.
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