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 their 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, saying, “Meanwhile homophobic slurs were yelled, years of harassment were reported & ignored, a house was burned down…”
The Human Rights Campaign said: "We know the heaviness and fear that comes with seeing reports of anti-LGBTQ+ violence in your social media feeds. We feel it too."
