Joss

On June 1, 2025, Jonathan Joss, 59, from San Antonio, Texas, was fatally shot by neighbour Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez.

Joss, a beloved voice actor and musician, who was best known for his roles in King of the Hill, as John Redcorn and as Chief Ken Hotate in Parks and Recreation, died from a gunshot wound outside his house as his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, held him.

“I just kept telling him: ‘It’s OK. You need to cross over. You don’t need to keep struggling. You need to go ahead and cross over easy.’” Kern de Gonzales said. 

Alvarez is alleged to have said a homophobic slur, “Jotos”, at the newlyweds, who were married in March this year. According to Kern de Gonzales, a trans man, this attack came after years of homophobic abuse and not being listened to by the Arizona PD.

“I’ve been called that word while I was sitting on a bench with Jonathan, eating lunch. And I got called that holding Jonathan while he died.” Said Kern de Gonzales, who on Joss’ Facebook account, claimed that the pair had been experiencing homophobic hate from Alvarez for some time.

Joss’ murder has been described by some on social media as a ‘lynching of a native man for being gay’, while Native advocacy organisations and influencers are also pointing to Joss’ heritage as an Apache and Comanche descendant. 

In 2021, a report by the Sovereign Bodies Institute and the California Rural Indian Health Board was published in The Guardian. Of the 18 respondents to the study who identified as ‘Native LGBTQ2’, almost 90% reported multiple forms of violence. 

As reported by Them, a 2025 report from the Human Rights Campaign further states that LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Indigenous people face disproportionately high rates of police violence. 

One respondent, Monique “Muffie” Mousseau, 56, Oglala Lakota, said, “A police officer saw me hugging and kissing my wife. He jumped me, saying, ‘we don’t tolerate f**s in South Dakota’.”

Another one, from an anonymous contributor, said, “Give me help. Don’t give me harassment. And that’s all we get around here. They harass you first. Give you help last.”

Originally, the San Antonio Police Department denied that Joss’ murder was motivated by homophobia in a statement posted to the social media platform X on June 2, despite taking these claims “very seriously”, allegedly. 

However, two days later, on June 4, the San Antonio PD released another statement on the social media platform. This time, in partnership with Pride San Antonio.

We see you, we hear you and we stand with you. Join us June 5th, in partnership with @PrideSanAntonio https://t.co/Z94nzkETIc pic.twitter.com/rQmOfluXex

— San Antonio PD (@SATXPolice) June 4, 2025

The statement, which sets out to reassure the LGBTQIA+ community that the San Antonia PD stand with them and hears their concerns, has not been received well by commenters. 

One commenter wrote, “So it’s a hate crime now that we pointed it out to you???? Yesterday “we don’t have any evidence” you corrupt fuckers (also police don’t belong at pride fuck you)”

Another accused the Police Department of being so “brainwashed by radical right wing extremism” that it could no longer recognise hate crimes. 

On June 4, NBC News reported that, according to obtained call logs, Police were called to respond to incidents at their home more than four dozen times, with most of the calls labelled as “disturbances.”

NBC were able to confirm with a police spokesperson that the police department’s “SAFFE” unit, which works to prevent crimes, had been mediating a dispute between neighbours Alvarez and Joss for over a year. Other aspects of the dispute, which involved a crossbow, a claim of arson against Alvarez and questions surrounding the display of Joss and Kern de Gonzales’ former dog’s skull, who is thought to have perished in the house fire. 

The news channel expressed that this evidence combined painted a “complicated picture of what led up to Joss’ death.” 

In February 2025, the Williams Institute published its report detailing the targeted, systematic attack on LGBTQIA+ rights, following the two weeks of Trump’s election. However, the reversal and systematic stripping of rights predate Trump and are traceable over the past decade, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU. 

“In 2023, the ACLU tracked 510 anti-LGBT[QIA+] bills, and in 2024, it tracked 533 anti-LGBT bills that were introduced in state legislatures across the United States”, states the report. 

Comparatively, the ACLU has already tracked 339 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills across the U.S as of February 10, 2025, alone. So it’s perhaps no wonder that these systematic attacks have resulted in LGBTQIA+ people being five times more likely than non-LGBTQIA+ people to be victims of violent crimes. 

This is exacerbated by low trust in police forces, who, according to a 2024 Police Insight analysis, state that; “When we asked survey respondents if they would call the police for help if they became victims of a crime, we found that LGBTQ[IA+] people were less likely to say yes than non-LGBTQ[IA+] people: 71% compared with 87%.”

With growing anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment in the US, alongside the litany of failures to protect Native American communities, it is perhaps easy to understand the sense of discouragement and distrust currently being felt in relation to Joss’ murder. 

Actor Jonathan Joss, whose varied career notably included roles on “King of the Hill” and “Parks and Recreation,” has died. He was killed Sunday in a shooting in San Antonio, according to police.

According to an incident report shared with The Times, officers responded Sunday evening to a shooting at the 200 block of Dorsey Drive where they found Joss near the roadway. First responders “attempted life saving measures” until EMS officers arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. He was 59.

Police did not disclose details about what led to the shooting, but said officers found and arrested the alleged shooter. Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, 56, was booked Monday morning on suspicion of murder. His bond is set at $200,000, according to TMZ, which broke the news of Joss’ death.

The Times could not reach a legal representative for Alvarez Ceja. San Antonio police said it is investigating the shooting.

The actor’s husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, alleged in a Facebook post shared Monday that he and Joss suffered “openly homophobic” harassment and threats prior to the fatal shooting, which he claimed was also motivated by homophobia. Gonzales wrote that he and Joss had returned Sunday the site of the actor’s San Antonio home — which burned down in January — to check their mail. The actor also lost three dogs in the fire. The men “discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view” and “began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw,” Gonzales wrote.

A man approached them, “started yelling violent homophobic slurs” and “raised a gun from his lap and fired,” Gonzales wrote. He said Joss pushed him out of the way, saving his life, and added that his husband “was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”

“I was with him when he passed,” he wrote. “I told him how much he was loved.”

Joss, born December 1965, is best known for voicing John Redcorn, Hank Hill’s neighbor on the hit Fox animated series “King of the Hill.” Joss lent his voice to the series from 1997 to 2009, taking over from original voice actor Victor Aaron. He also voiced John Redcorn for the show’s video game tie-in in 2000.

Joss spoke about his ties to his longtime character in April as he lamented not being invited to an event promoting the “King of the Hill” revival. Hulu announced Friday that Season 14 of “King of the Hill” will premiere in August. The voice cast touts Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom, and Toby Huss. Joss recorded lines for the revival prior to his death, according to Variety.

“This show was a part of my life for many years,” he wrote on Facebook. “That character, that voice, that story…they were my home, my pride, my connection to something bigger than myself.”

Joss, who studied acting at Our Lady of the Lake University, began acting in the mid-1990s with minor roles in TV projects including “Walker, Texas Ranger” and the miniseries “Dead Man’s Walk.”

In addition to “King of the Hill,” Joss is known for portraying Wamapoke elder and casino owner Chief Ken Hotate in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” where he appeared alongside star Amy Poehler. In the series, Joss’ Ken dissuades Poehler’s peppy protagonist Leslie Knope from hosting a local festival on sacred burial grounds.

“There are two things I know about white people,” he jokes in the series. “They love Matchbox Twenty and they are terrified of curses.”

His television credits also include the Paramount+ drama “Tulsa King,” “Ray Donovan,” “Friday Night Lights,” “ER” and “Charmed.”

Joss’ resumé includes films “The Magnificent Seven,” “True Grit” and “8 Seconds,” among others. He also lent his voice to several video games, including “Red Dead Redemption,” “Days Gone,” “Wasteland 3” and “Cyberpunk 2077.”

The actor embarked on several fan events, including meet-and-greets and Q&As, in the months before his death. On Sunday morning, he recalled meeting fans at Tribe Comics and Games in Austin: “Last night’s gig was amazing — huge thanks to everyone who came out and showed us love!” In the same post, Joss told followers he was seeking a ride to San Antonio.

Joss is survived by his husband. They got married this year on Valentine’s Day. Joss referenced the devastation of losing his home in April, writing in his Facebook post he has since “been rebuilding, piece by piece, soul by soul.”

He added, addressing fans: “You’ve been the ones to lift me up, to remind me of the impact I’ve made, and to carry me through some of the darkest day[s] of my life. Your love means more than I can ever say.”

Gonzales wrote in Monday’s statement he and Joss were were in the process of finding a new home and “planning our future together.” He thanked Joss’ fans for their support and vowed to protect and carry on the actor’s legacy.

“Jonathan saved my life. I will carry that forward. I will protect what he built,” Gonzales wrote.