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Horrific Homophobic Murder of TV Star in San Antonio -- But Police Refuse to Call it a Hate Crime [1]

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Date: 2025-06-03

Jonathon Joss, a star of King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation was brutally murdered by one of his homophobic neighbors at what was left of his home in San Antonio, TX, after an earlier arson attack had burned it to the ground. But despite testimony from his newly wedded husband who witnessed the shooting and helped identify the murderer, local police refused to characterize the killing as a hate crime. From the NYT, which appears to accept at face value the initial police report that there was “no evidence” pointing to any sort of hate crime here:

Jonathan Joss, the actor best known for his voice work on the animated television show “King of the Hill,” was shot and killed by a neighbor on Sunday night during a dispute in San Antonio, the authorities said. Mr. Joss, who was 59, voiced John Redcorn on “King of the Hill” and also appeared in “Parks and Recreation,” “Ray Donovan” and “Tulsa King.” The neighbor, who was identified by investigators as Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, was taken into custody shortly after the altercation and charged with murder, the San Antonio Police Department said on Monday. The police did not say what had led to the dispute, which happened around 7 p.m. on the south side of San Antonio.But in a post on Mr. Joss’s Facebook page on Monday, his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, described the shooting as a hate crime and said that the two of them had been repeatedly harassed because they were gay. He wrote that they had returned to a property where Mr. Joss’s home had burned down earlier this year when the shooting occurred. “He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us,” he wrote in a statement. “He then raised a gun from his lap and fired.” Mr. Kern de Gonzales said that he and Mr. Joss had reported the harassment several times in the past to the authorities, but that it had continued. A police spokesman disputed Mr. Kern de Gonzales’s account about what had motivated the attack. “Our investigation has found no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the Mr. Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation,” the spokesman said in a statement.

OTOH, there is this much more detailed and utterly horrific statement from Mr Gonzales as related by Deadline:

After news of Jos’ killing broke, his husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales shared a lengthy, heartbreaking statement on Facebook, in which he detailed the events that preceded the shooting, saying it was the result of an anti-gay hate crime. He wrote that police did not take seriously the “openly homophobic” threats he and Joss - who is of Comanche and Apache descent - had been receiving for the past two years and that their home had been burned down after surrounding neighbors said they would do so. “My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home. That home was burned down after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire. We reported these threats to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done. Throughout that time we were harassed regularly by individuals who made it clear they did not accept our relationship. Much of the harassment was openly homophobic. 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. 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. Jonathan is my husband. He gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get. We were newlyweds. We picked Valentines Day. We were in the process of looking for a trailer and planning our future. He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”

There are none so blind as those who refuse to open their eyes and actually look at the evidence in plain view.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/3/2325714/-Horrific-Homophobic-Murder-of-TV-Star-in-San-Antonio-But-Police-Refuse-to-Call-it-a-Hate-Crime?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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