SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police and Pride San Antonio hosted a forum for the community to ask questions and express concerns in the wake of actor Jonathan Joss’ death.
The community forum took place on Thursday evening, four days after Joss was fatally shot at his South Side property.
SAPD Chief William McManus began the forum with an apology for the “premature” statement issued on Monday. He addressed criticism regarding the decision not to charge the shooter with a hate crime.
In that 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.
During the forum, several individuals shared their concerns about the police department’s handling of LGBTQ+ cases.
“Chief McManus, he’s been police chief here a long time,” Karen Vaught said. “He really should have known better.”
One woman mentioned her gay brother was murdered in February 2023 and said she has had “such a hard time with SAPD” trying to solve her brother’s case.
“Historically, hate crimes go underreported and under-prosecuted,” Robert Vargas III said.
The meeting was intended to foster greater trust between the LGBTQ+ community and SAPD, but for some, that wasn’t the case.
“Before, I would have just thought you call the police when you have a problem [but] now I think I’d be a bit more nervous for them after hearing the stories,” Heidi, a forum attendee and advocate, said.
During a news conference on Thursday morning, 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 office.
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.
“We have a huge event coming up at the end of the month, a lot of celebrations during the month,” James Poindexter with Pride San Antonio said. “We need to have an understanding with the police and be able to work side by side and together to make this a successful month.”
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