'King of the Hill' actor Jonathan Joss shot to death; husband calls it antigay hate crime
Jonathan Joss, an actor known for the TV shows King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation, was shot to death Sunday night in what his husband is calling a homophobic hate crime.
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Joss, 59, was shot at the site of his former San Antonio home, which had burned down in January, according to multiple media outlets. He and his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, had gone there to check their mail, Kern de Gonzales wrote on social media.
Once there, 'we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view,' he wrote on Facebook. 'This caused both of us severe emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw.
'While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired. Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.'
Police attempted to revive Joss, but when paramedics arrived, they pronounced him dead, The New York Times reports. A neighbor, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, was arrested and is charged with murder. Police have not commented on a motive and said the investigation is continuing. However, Kern de Gonzales wrote that Joss was killed "by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other."
Joss, born and raised in San Antonio, was best known as the voice of John Redcorn, a Native American masseur and healer, on the Fox animated series King of the Hill. The actor was of Apache and Comanche heritage. He had already recorded some of his lines for the series' upcoming reboot, Variety notes. The reboot will be available in August on Hulu.
He played a Native American chief, Ken Hotate, on five episodes of Parks and Recreation, a situation comedy on NBC that starred Amy Poehler. He appeared on other TV shows, such as Ray Donovan, Friday Night Lights, Tulsa King, and Walker, Texas Ranger, and in films that included the remakes of True Grit and The Magnificent Seven.
He also was a musician with the Red Corn Band, the name of which references his King of the Hill character.
Kern de Gonzales said in his Facebook post that he and Joss had frequently been harassed and threatened by homophobic neighbors. This included threats to set their house on fire, Kern de Gonzales said. Joss said at the time of the fire that he may have left something on that caused it, but Friday at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, he said, 'My house burned down three months ago because I'm gay,' according to People. He spoke from the audience and said he was disappointed not to have been invited to be in an onstage panel that featured producers Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.
Joss and Kern de Gonzales were married on Valentine's Day of this year. 'He gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get,' Kern de Gonzales wrote in his Facebook post.
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