NEED TO KNOW
The puzzle pieces of Jonathan Joss’ final days are coming together.
Just two days before the King of the Hill actor was shot and killed at the age of 59 on Sunday, June 1, in San Antonio, Texas, he was escorted out of a panel for the iconic animated series at the Paramount Theatre as part of the ATX TV Festival on Friday, May 30, in Austin, Texas.
While the panel was in full swing, Joss stood up and approached the microphone set up for the Q&A portion of the event, which had not begun yet, an eyewitness in the audience tells PEOPLE. The onlooker says security guards came out at this time.
The eyewitness says audience members “laughed nervously in the crowd” and that King of the Hill co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels didn’t seem alarmed while others appeared “a bit worried or uncomfortable.”
“It seemed he did get a little emotional while he spoke, but mostly he was calm and he just needed to say his piece,” the onlooker adds of Joss.
FOX
“I’m an actor,” Joss said in a fan-captured video of the moment. “I see a mic, I use it. I see a wrong, I make it right. I take a breath, I want to breathe.”
Joss later revealed to the attendees that his house had burned down three months prior, seemingly indicating it was a hate crime as he said it was “because I’m gay.” He was then seen walking toward the stage and across the front row.
At one point in the video, Judge told the audience Joss played John Redcorn on King of the Hill and was returning for the revival.
“As Joss moved away from the mic to go back to his seat, that’s when security told him he had to leave and he exited the theater calmly and cooperatively,” the onlooker says, adding that the panel got “back on track” after this.
PEOPLE has reached out to a spokesperson for the ATX TV Festival for comment.
In a Facebook post from April 21, Joss shared a statement about not being asked to participate in the King of the Hill panel at ATX TV Festival “not entirely out of anger, but also out of the deep ache in my heart.”
“This show was a part of my life for many years. That character, that voice, that story…they were my home, my pride, my connection to something bigger than myself,” he continued. “To not be invited felt like being shut out of a place I helped build.”
Joss followed that Facebook post with another on April 29 in which he said he’d heard from Disney — the parent company of Hulu, where the revival is airing — that the panel would “be focusing on series regulars.”
“I truly appreciate them taking the time to reach out to me personally,” he added. “It means a lot.”
Despite his disappointment, Joss shared a video to Instagram one day after the TV festival showing him celebrating that the King of the Hill “reboot is up and running” while preparing to sign autographs at an Austin-based comic and game store.
Jonathan Joss/Facebook
Hours after news broke that Joss was killed during a dispute with his former neighbor, his husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales shared a statement that offered his first-hand account of the incident.
Gonzales, who married Joss on Valentine’s Day, said he was present when Joss was shot and claimed the issue was rooted in homophobia. He revealed that Joss pushed him out of the way when the neighbor fired the gun, writing, “He saved my life.”
“He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” Gonzales alleged. “I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved. To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends, know that he valued you deeply. He saw you as family. My focus now is on protecting Jonathan’s legacy and honoring the life we built together.”
Despite Gonzales’ claims, the San Antonio Police Department issued a statement on X on June 2, saying they were investigating the incident but have “found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation.”
Police previously told PEOPLE authorities were dispatched to a shooting in progress at Joss’ address around 7 p.m. local time in June 1, where they found the actor lying “near the roadway.” After attempting “life saving measures,” paramedics pronounced Joss dead at the scene.
The suspect, 56-year-old Sigfredo Alvarez Cejam, was quickly found and detained by officers after fleeing the scene in a vehicle. Cejam has been booked on a charge of murder and the investigation is still ongoing.
