San Antonio police walk back statement dismissing possible hate crime in Jonathan Joss' shooting death
San Antonio police apologized Thursday for a "premature" statement declaring there was no evidence of a hate crime in the death of Jonathan Joss.
Joss, a voice actor known for playing John Redcorn in "King of the Hill," was fatally shot Sunday outside his San Antonio home. His neighbor, 56-year-old Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, was arrested and booked on a murder charge, police said.
San Antonio Police said in a statement the following day that "despite online claims of this being a hate crime, currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss's murder was related to his sexual orientation."
That statement sparked outrage and was rebutted by Joss' husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, who believes his husband was killed for his sexual orientation.
Chief William P. McManus retracted the police statement on Thursday.
"Shouldn't have done it. [It] was way too soon before we had real information, and I will own that," McManus said. 'It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.'
"We understand that many in the LGBTQ+ community are feeling anxious and concerned. A lot of it has to do with that premature statement that we released, and again, I own that. Shouldn't have done it," he continued.
McManus clarified that in Texas, hate crimes are not separate charges and are addressed as sentencing enhancements.
"We don't charge with hate crimes. We gather the facts and we give those facts to the district attorney's office, and that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing, but we don't charge hate crime," he said.
McManus also said there were concerns surrounding the history Joss had in the neighborhood leading up to the shooting.
A review of police records and interviews with neighbors and Kern de Gonzalez showed the couple had issues with neighbors. Kern De Gonzalez said many neighbors would hurl anti-gay slurs at them and complain about them being 'loud.'
McManus said Thursday that over the past two years, there have been 70 calls involving neighborhood-type disturbances. Sometimes, Joss is the caller, and other times, the neighbors are calling on him.
The police's mental health unit had "extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to remediate conflicts and connect him with services he may have needed," the police chief said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Ceja was released on $200,000 bond Monday and was ordered to not purchase or possess any firearms, and was issued a no contact order. He is awaiting indictment.
A court-appointed attorney for Ceja did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shooting stirred uproar online and among advocates.
One X user called out the police department for initially claiming there was no evidence of a hate crime, 'Meanwhile homophobic slurs were yelled, years of harassment were reported & ignored, a house was burned down…'
"We know the heaviness and fear that comes with seeing reports of anti-LGBTQ+ violence in your social media feeds. We feel it too," the Human Rights Campaign said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Upturn
3 days ago
- Business Upturn
King of the Hill Season 14: Release date, cast updates and what to expect next
By Aman Shukla Published on June 9, 2025, 17:18 IST After a 15-year hiatus, King of the Hill is set to return with its highly anticipated Season 14, bringing back the beloved animated sitcom to fans old and new. Created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, the show's revival on Hulu promises to revisit the quirky world of Arlen, Texas, with a modern twist. Here's everything you need to know about the King of the Hill Season 14. King of the Hill Season 14 Release Date The King of the Hill revival is scheduled to premiere on August 4, 2025, on Hulu, with all 10 episodes dropping at once for binge-watching. This marks the show's first new season since its original run ended in 2010. Fans can also stream the series on Disney+ via the Hulu hub in the United States or as a Star Original internationally. The release was confirmed during a panel at the ATX TV Festival on May 30, 2025, where the cast and crew shared a first look at the updated opening credits and a grown-up Bobby Hill. Cast Updates for Season 14 The King of the Hill revival brings back most of the original voice cast, ensuring the authentic feel fans love, while addressing the absence of key actors due to unfortunate circumstances. Here's a breakdown of the returning cast members: Mike Judge reprises his roles as Hank Hill , the pragmatic propane salesman, and Boomhauer , the fast-talking womanizer. Kathy Najimy returns as Peggy Hill , the confident substitute teacher with a knack for Boggle. Pamela Adlon voices Bobby Hill , now a 21-year-old chef navigating adulthood. Stephen Root is back as Bill Dauterive , the lovable but depressed barber. Lauren Tom reprises her roles as Minh Souphanousinphone and her daughter Connie . Ashley Gardner returns as Nancy Hicks-Gribble , Dale's wife and local news anchor. Toby Huss takes over as Dale Gribble for most of the season, following the passing of Johnny Hardwick in August 2023. Hardwick recorded dialogue for six episodes before his death. Ronny Chieng joins the cast as Kahn Souphanousinphone , replacing Toby Huss, who voiced the character in the original run. This recasting reflects a conscious decision to align with modern casting practices. Marwan Naji is listed in the cast, though his role remains unconfirmed. Grey DeLisle is also involved, with leaked images from the wrap party suggesting she may voice a character like Nancy Gribble in some capacity. Plot Details: What to Expect in Season 14 Season 14 picks up 15 years after the original series finale, with a time jump that ages the characters to reflect the passage of time. The official plot description reveals that Hank and Peggy Hill have retired after working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to build their retirement nest egg. They return to a changed Arlen, Texas, to reconnect with old friends Dale Gribble, Boomhauer, and Bill Dauterive. Meanwhile, Bobby Hill, now in his 20s, is living his dream as a chef in Dallas, navigating adulthood alongside former classmates Connie, Joseph, and Chane. Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Hate crime or neighborhood feud? Everything we know so far about Jonathan Joss's killing
Jonathan Joss's struggles didn't begin when he was shot Sunday night. In the midst of a years-long feud with the man accused of killing him, the actor was self-admittedly dealing with the loss of his house and pets, financial hardships, and substance abuse. These problems are all too present in LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities and were particularly felt by Joss toward the end of his life. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. "As we reflect on the recent coverage surrounding Jonathan's final days, we carry this ache like a stone in our chest," the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions said in a statement. "Public reports describing his distress are heartbreaking, not because they define who he was, but because they point to a more profound crisis that is all too familiar in Native communities: the unspoken, underserved, and ongoing struggle with mental hardship and lateral violence." While the circumstances surrounding his shooting are complicated, one thing remains clear — Joss's death is a tragedy that has deeply impacted queer and Native circles. Here's everything we know about Joss's killing and the events leading up to it. Fox/NBC John Redcorn on 'King of the Hill'; Chief Ken Hotate on 'Parks and Rec' Jonathan Joss, 59, was an out gay Indigenous actor of Apache and Comanche heritage known for his roles in Fox's animated series King of the Hill and NBC's sitcom Parks and Recreation. Joss voiced John Redcorn, a Native American masseur and healer, on King of the Hill, and portrayed Ken Hotate, a Native American chief, on Parks and Recreation. He had reportedly already recorded some of his lines for the upcoming King of the Hill reboot, which will be available in August on Hulu. Joss married his partner, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, 32, on Valentine's Day of this year. The couple had been living in Joss's childhood home in San Antonio, Texas — which his father built for his mother in 1957 — for several years before his death. Joss struggled with addiction throughout his life and had been open about spending time in mental health treatment. He said on the Bwaaa! The King of the Hill Podcast that he was not sober. Recorded one day before his death, the episode would become his last interview. "I've already lost everything. My house burnt down. I ain't going to give up drugs. I ain't going to give up drinking. They're my friends," he said. - YouTube Joss's home burned down in January, resulting in the deaths of his and Kern de Gonzales's three dogs. The couple had been staying in a hotel due to electricity issues after the home was vandalized but returned regularly to take care of the dogs. Upon returning one afternoon, Joss found a blaze had consumed the house. Joss said that he had been using a propane tank inside the house for heat but that he had turned it off before he left. He and Kern de Gonzales soon after launched a GoFundMe to help with their living expenses. "This is a house I grew up in. I'm more concerned about my dog that died, but you know what? The good Lord will protect us,' Joss told local outlet KSAT at the time. 'Mistakes happen, man. And it's my fault for, I guess, leaving something on. Or if somebody came in and did something, who knows?' Joss was often candid on social media about their financial struggles, offering Cameos to earn revenue. He denied a rumor that he started the fire for insurance money, telling the the Bwaaa! podcast hosts that he would never kill his dogs. "My closest friend said, 'Jonathan, we know you set that fire. ... We know you did it for money,'" Joss said. "I said, 'Guys, my dogs ... were there. I would never hurt my dogs. ... I would never light my dogs on fire.'" - YouTube Just two days before his death, Joss interrupted a King of the Hill reunion panel by claiming the fire that destroyed his house was a deliberate act of arson against him because of his sexual orientation. Joss was not invited to the panel, which was meant to be a small gathering of he main cast, but attended in the audience. When one of the actors said of Joss, "We love our guy, Johnny, and so sad he's not here," he revealed himself in the crowd and took a microphone meant for fan questions. 'You were talking about Johnny, and I want to say something about him,' the panel moderator from Variety recalled him saying. 'Our house burnt down three months ago. Because I'm gay." Joss explained the moment on Bwaaa!, saying that he did not initially intend to interrupt the panel but spoke up in the heat of the moment. "The worst thing about not existing in the world is someone ignoring you when they have taken from your culture," he said. Jonathan Joss Kern de Gonzales revealed in a Facebook post that he and Joss were "involved in a shooting" when they returned to the site of their former home to check the mail. He claimed that the fire and the shooting occurred "after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire" and that despite reporting the threats to law enforcement multiple times, "nothing was done." "When we returned to the site to check our mail we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view," Kern de Gonzales wrote. "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," he continued. "We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life." - YouTube Kern de Gonzales later told NBC that he and Joss, after seeing their dead dog's skull placed in front of their burnt down home, believed it to be a message from their neighbors taunting them. In anger, Joss began shouting and walking back and forth in the street with a pitchfork. One neighbor shared a video with KSAT that shows Joss walking with the pitchfork and yelling about half an hour before his death. 'I knew something was going to happen. I wanted to call the police, but he hadn't done anything," she said. Kern de Gonzales said the suspect pulled up in his car several minutes after Joss had returned to his side. Kern de Gonzales said the man called him and his husband "jotos," a Spanish slur for gay people, before shooting Joss. 'I could give two fucks less if me or my husband had 50 pitchforks in every orifice of our body rolling up and down that street like tumbleweed," Kern de Gonzales said. "It don't matter." Bexar County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez's mug shot Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with Joss's killing, telling officers as he was being detained "I shot him," according to the police report. The two neighbors had reportedly been feuding for over a year, with law enforcement frequently being called to Joss's residence to settle their disputes. Alvarez told police in June 2024 that Joss approached his house with a crossbow while calling him racial slurs, though Joss claimed that he walked over to "talk about their dogs fighting with each other." Upon searching Joss's house, officers found a crossbow and confiscated it. Joss accused Alvarez of being the one who burned his home down in January, according to a separate police report via NBC. The officer taking the report wrote, "I have classified this fire to be undetermined in nature at this time but cannot rule out human involvement intentional or unintentional." Alvarez posted his $200,000 bond Monday night, a Bexar County court spokesperson told Yahoo News. He is now under house arrest, during which he is subject to random drug testing and is not allowed to access firearms. NBC Jonathan Joss Multiple neighbors have said that Joss often spoke loudly and behaved erratically but that no violent confrontations had occurred until he was shot. One woman said that Joss and Alvarez would often fire guns on their own property, but never at each other. 'I've been here six years and when we moved in, it was already going on, so it's just been years of feud with these two,' she told the New York Post. 'I'm not taking nobody's side because I do have reports on both of them, but nothing got done. This man should be alive today, but nothing got done.' The neighbor who took the video of Joss with the pitchfork also said that he "was always yelling at the top of his lungs." She explained, "He would say that all the children on this street were going to die, and that we were all going to go to hell because we're sinners and God is on his side.' Another neighbor told San Antonio TV station WOAI that she had seen Joss outside minutes before his death and that he seemed upset about something. She said that he and his husband "had been repeatedly harassed because they were gay and their home was burned down after years of threats from neighbors." The San Antonio Police Department released a statement shortly after Joss's death claiming it had uncovered "no evidence" to suggest that the killing was a hate crime, which his husband's statement contested. The department later retracted its comments. Police Chief William McManus walked back the statement at a press conference Thursday while also apologizing to the LGBTQ+ community for dismissing their concerns, saying "it was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued." "We understand that many in the LBGTQ+ [sic] community are feeling anxious and concerned," McManus said. "A lot of that has to do with that premature statement that we released, and again, I own that. We shouldn't have done it. The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic and most heavily felt by the LBGTQ+ [sic] community." McManus also clarified that the police department doesn't charge hate crimes in Texas. Instead, police "gather the facts and we give those facts to the district attorney's office; then that hate-crime designation is determined at sentencing." Kern de Gonzales had asserted in his Facebook post that throughout their time living at Joss's family home as a couple, they "were harassed regularly by individuals who made it clear they did not accept our relationship. Much of the harassment was openly homophobic." "He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other," he said. Screenshot from @prattprattpratt on Instagram Chris Pratt tribute to Jonathan Joss Several of Joss's colleagues from King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation have posted messages mourning the actor. The official social media accounts for the shows have also posted tributes. King of the Hill creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and current showrunner Saladin Patterson released a statement on the show's Instagram page saying that "his voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan's friends and family." Toby Huss, who voiced Kahn Souphanousinphone and Cotton Hill on King of the Hill, wrote on Instagram Story in reaction to the news,"RIP old friend. Godspeed." Chris Pratt, who played Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation, also posted a message to his story, which read, "Damn. RIP Jonathan. Always such a kind dude. He played Ken Hotate in Parks and was also in Mag 7 [The Magnificent Seven]. Sad to see. Prayers up. Hug your loved ones." Nick Offerman, who played Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, told People that the cast had been texting about the news and were all "heartbroken." He added,"Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
What to know about fatal shooting of 'King of the Hill' actor Jonathan Joss as co-stars pay tribute
HOUSTON (AP) — While it remains unclear what prompted the fatal shooting of Jonathan Joss, a Native American voice actor best known for his work on the animated television series 'King of the Hill,' police say they are looking into whether his sexual orientation played a role in his death. Joss' husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled 'violent homophobic slurs' before opening fire. Initially, San Antonio police said they found 'no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss' murder was related to his sexual orientation.' But on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus walked back that statement, saying it had been made prematurely and whether Joss' sexual orientation played a role in the shooting 'is part of the investigation.' Since Joss' killing, friends, actors Joss worked with and fans have honored the actor's memory with tributes and fond remembrances. Here's what to know about Joss, his career and his shooting: Who was Joss? Joss, 59, grew up in San Antonio and graduated from the communications and theater program at Our Lady of the Lake University in 1990. Joss was best known as the voice of John Redcorn, a Native American character on the popular 'King of the Hill' animated series, which ran for 13 seasons from 1997 to 2008. A reboot of the show, which Joss had already worked on, is set to start in August. Joss also had a recurring role on the television show 'Parks and Recreation,' playing Chief Ken Hotate. He appeared in two episodes of the series 'Tulsa King' in 2022. What was happening with Joss in the months before his death? Joss' childhood home, where he still lived, burned down in January. He lost all his belongings, and his three dogs were killed in the blaze. A GoFundMe account had been set up to help Joss and his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, get back on their feet. 'We may have lost our home, but not our hope. We're moving forward with love, humor, and a little elbow grease … and we're incredibly grateful for every ounce of support,' Joss said in a May 14 Facebook post in which he indicated he was in Los Angeles looking for a new home. By the end of May, Joss was back in Texas, and on Saturday, he took part in a live music performance in Austin, located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio. Who is accused of fatally shooting Joss? Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, is accused by police of confronting Joss and his husband as they were checking their mail at the burned-down home Sunday night. In a statement, de Gonzales alleged that when Ceja Alvarez opened fire, Joss pushed his husband out of the way and saved his life. Ceja Alvarez was charged with murder. He is free on a $200,000 bond. Ceja Alvarez's attorney, Alfonso Otero, asked the public to withhold judgment in the case until all the evidence is reviewed by prosecutors. 'Mr. Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez maintains his innocence and categorically denies any accusations and statements made against him by individuals and the media. We have confidence and trust that the judicial process will be fair to all parties involved and request everyone to respect Mr. Ceja and his family's right to privacy and his constitutional right to a fair trial,' Otero said in a statement released late Friday. Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said it was premature to decide if Joss' shooting was a hate crime, which under Texas law would be handled — if there's a conviction — as an enhancement during sentencing and not as a separate charge. 'We'll certainly keep our options open when the case is filed with us ... I'm not closing the door on the possibility of alleging hate crime as an enhancement in this case," Gonzales said during a news conference on Thursday. Robert Rios, a friend of Joss', told TV station KSAT that Joss and Ceja Alvarez were neighbors and the two had argued for years. McManus said police had been called to Joss' home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to 'neighborhood type disturbances" and that sometimes Joss made those calls and at other times neighbors had called to report Joss. How is Joss being remembered by friends, actors? Actor Chris Pratt, who worked with Joss on 'Parks and Recreation,' fondly remembered the actor in an Instagram story on Monday. Both actors had also appeared in the 2016 remake of 'The Magnificent Seven.' 'Damn. RIP Jonathan. Always such a kind dude,' Pratt wrote. 'Sad to see. Prayers up. Hug your loved ones.' In a Facebook post, San Antonio-based Our Lady of the Lake University, Joss' alma mater, called him 'a trailblazer in his field. His work and advocacy have left a lasting impact, and his legacy will continue to inspire.' 'His voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan's friends and family,' the show's creators and producers — Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson — said in a statement on the animated series' Instagram page. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano: Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press
