Detectives investigating “King of the Hill” actor Jonathan Joss’ homicide walked again their dismissal of homophobic hate crime claims — admitting it was “approach untimely” to rule the chance out.
“We issued an announcement the day after Jonathan Joss’s homicide that was approach, approach, approach untimely,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus instructed reporters Thursday. “We shouldn’t have executed it.”
Joss’ husband took to social media a day after his Sunday homicide to assert the capturing was carried out by a bigoted neighbor who’d been harassing them over their sexuality for years — and that the gunman was spewing homophobic slurs as he pulled the set off.
The San Antonio Police Division (SAPD) shortly rebuked these allegations, nevertheless, writing inside hours on X that investigators had discovered “no proof to point that Mr. Joss’s homicide was associated to his sexual orientation” — however now appears to be altering its tune.
“It was approach too quickly earlier than we had any actual data, and I’ll personal that,” McManus mentioned.
The chief didn’t touch upon whether or not investigators have been now trying into homophobia as a motivator for the suspect arrested on the scene — Joss’ 56-year-old next-door neighbor Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez — as an alternative explaining that in Texas, hate crimes aren’t separate prices, however somewhat enhancements at sentencing time.
“They’re addressed via sentencing enhancements. So, for instance, if somebody’s arrested for a category B misdemeanor and a hate crime designation attaches to that cost, then that Class B misdemeanor is elevated to a category A misdemeanor,” McManus mentioned, based on KENS 5.
Joss — a 59-year-old who performed “John Redcorn” on “King of the Hill” — was gunned down in his driveway Sunday night after he stopped by his property to select up his mail, however obtained right into a heated argument with somebody and wound up useless on the bottom.
His husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, claimed they’d discovered the stays of a beloved pet canine they’d lately misplaced in a property hearth displayed out entrance, and that they grew to become distraught on the sight.
A neighbor whom Joss had been butting heads with for years then came to visit and began arguing with them, Gonzales claimed, then pulled out a rifle and killed the actor.
After police initially refuted Gonzales’ claims, quite a few residents on the road revealed Joss hadn’t been the most effective neighbor and recounted tales of him stalking up and down the block whereas screaming and wielding weapons.
However additionally they corroborated claims a few years-long feud between Joss and Alvarez, with some describing listening to gunshots ringing from each males’s properties at odd hours of the evening.
That battle and others with Joss resulted in additional than 70 police calls to his property over the previous two years, Chief McManus revealed Thursday.
“Typically he was the caller. Different occasions the neighbors have been calling on him. Our protected unit, our psychological well being unit had intensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts,” the chief mentioned.
