SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police and Pride San Antonio announced it will host a forum for the community to ask questions and express concerns in the wake of actor Jonathan Joss’ death.
SAPD and Pride San Antonio are inviting members of the LGBTQ+ community to attend the forum, which will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Woodlawn Pointe, located at 702 Ave., four days after Joss was fatally shot at his South Side property.
TheTXLoop will livestream the community forum in this article and on TheTXLoop Plus. Delays are possible; if there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.
San Antonio police expressed sympathy to the family, friends and fans mourning the loss of Joss in a statement on social media.
In a Monday statement, SAPD said there was no evidence that the deadly shooting was motivated by the sexual orientation of Joss, who was openly gay.
>> What we know about the death of Jonathan Joss in San Antonio, ongoing feud with suspected shooter
“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,” police said on Monday.
However, during a news conference on Thursday, SAPD Chief William McManus admitted that his department had issued a “way way way premature” statement on Monday concerning Joss’ murder investigation.
“It was way too soon before we had any real information,” McManus said during the news conference. “I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.”
While McManus spoke at Thursday’s news conference, Tristan Kern de Gonzales reaffirmed that he believes his husband’s death was a “hate crime.” In a Facebook post, he also claimed Joss spent “years begging for help” and police “ignored him.”
“If you really care about Jonathan or the long history of LGBTQIA+ and Indigenous people who have been ignored and harmed by the system, don’t believe this farce,” Kern de Gonzales wrote. “And let’s be clear: I know that the people outside of uniform, who truly loved and respected Jonathan, will deal with whoever did this. One way or another justice will prevail.”
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez is accused of fatally shooting Joss. He was arrested Sunday on a murder charge and was released from the Bexar County jail on Wednesday afternoon after posting a $200,000 bail — an amount recommended by the district attorney’s ffice.
While police are still investigating the motive behind Joss’ death, McManus said a common question people are asking is why Alvarez was not charged with murder and a hate crime.
In Texas, according to McManus, hate crimes are “not separate charges.” Instead, a hate crime determination would be made by a county’s district attorney’s office, in this case, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.
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