Police investigating the shooting of Jonathan Joss have said a statement claiming there was “no evidence” that the killing was a hate crime was “premature.”
Joss, best known for his roles in Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill, was shot dead outside his former home in Texas earlier this week. He was 59.
His death comes after he and his husband, Kern de Gonzales, moved from their Texas residence after it burned down in January. An investigation into the fire remains ongoing.
San Antonio Police say Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, believed to be a neighbour, has been charged with murder. He has since been released on a $200,000 bond according to ABC News.
Investigating officers said following claims from de Gonzales that the shooting occured after a series of alleged homophobic attacks against the couple, that there was “no evidence” the alleged killing was hate-motivated.
San Antonio Police chief William McManus, has since backpedaled on that statement, saying it was made in error following the international attention the case received.
“I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that,” McManus told press in a Thursday (5 June) statement. “It was too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.”
McManus clarified that part of the ongoing investigation involved determining whether the alleged killing was motivated by homophobia.
He added that the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” following Joss’ death, adding that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”
“The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community,” he continued. “We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing.”
Texas does not officially have separate hate crime charges, though killings driven by homophobia or hate for a marginalised group typically carry harsher sentence at trial.
De Gonzales said in a Tuesday (3 June) Facebook post following the incident that the pair had allegedly faced over two years of constant abuse while at the residence in Texas, claiming much of the harassment was “openly homophobic.”
He said that the home had allegedly been “burned down” after locals “repeatedly told us they would set it on fire.” He claimed the couple had reported those threats to law enforcement but “nothing was done.”
McManus confirmed that Police had been called to de Gonzales’ former neighbourhood at least 70 times over the past two years relating to “neighbourhood type disturbances.”
He said that both Joss and his neighbours made calls to the Police, adding that the San Antonio’s mental health unit “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he made have needed.”
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