Jonathan Joss, Voice of John Redcorn on ‘King of the Hill,’ Killed in Apparent Hate Crime

This is all just so heartbreaking and bizarre, given the events of the weekend. Jonathan Joss, who voiced the role of John Redcorn in the animated TV show King of the Hill, was shot and killed in what his husband described as a homophobic attack on Sunday while the couple was checking their mail, two days after Joss was escorted out of a King of the Hill festival panel, and one day after giving a podcast interview in which he made darkly morbid comments referencing his co-star Johnny Hardwick.

According to a statement from Joss’s husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, the two visited the site of their former home in San Antonio, which had burned down “after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire.” De Gonzales said they had been regularly harassed by neighbors “who did not accept our relationship.”

While checking their mail, they discovered “the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view.” In his words, this triggered “severe emotional distress,” and the two began “yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw.” As they processed the shock, a man — identified by police as Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja — allegedly approached them, “started yelling violent homophobic slurs,” and then raised a gun and fatally shot Joss.

“Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life,” De Gonzales wrote in a statement. “He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”

Paramedics pronounced Joss dead at the scene. Ceja was arrested one block away and charged with felony first-degree murder. However, San Antonio police stated that there is currently no evidence the shooting was related to Joss’s sexual orientation—which, what? Given the alleged slurs and the couple’s history of harassment, that assessment feels infuriatingly disconnected from the reality De Gonzales described.

Joss’s death followed a strange and deeply sad weekend in Austin, where he made an uninvited appearance at the King of the Hill panel at the ATX TV Festival. Upset about not being included in the panel, he took the stage briefly, saying, “I’m an actor. I see a mic, I use it. I see a wrong, I make it right. I take a breath, I want to breathe.” He also noted that his house had burned down three months prior “because I’m gay.” Security asked him to leave, and he complied without incident.

Despite his exclusion from the panel, co-creator Mike Judge stated publicly that Joss was returning for the upcoming Hulu revival of the show and had already completed voice work for several episodes.

On Saturday, Joss recorded a podcast interview in which he expressed frustration over being sidelined. “The worst thing about not existing in the world is someone ignoring you when they’ve taken from your culture,” he said. “Do not say I don’t exist in your world. The character John Redcorn is in the universe of King of the Hill. You don’t mess with the mouse. You don’t mess with Walt Disney.”

He also made unfiltered and bitter remarks about Johnny Hardwick, the late voice of Dale Gribble, saying he wanted to die like Hardwick, who “turned into soup.” (Hardwick died in his bathtub; his body was found in a decomposed state.) Joss added, “I felt bad, because I hated the son-of-a-bitch. I hated Dale. I hated Johnny Hardwick!” According to Joss, the animosity stemmed from Hardwick refusing to participate in an autograph signing with him. “It broke my heart,” he said, before adding, “It pains you when you lose somebody, and you hate ‘em.”

He concluded that podcast appearance by saying, “I hope, when I pass, I go out bathing like Johnny, like a can of soup.”

The timing is unsettling, the loss immeasurable, and the homophobic violence absolutely enraging. What a terrible tragedy.

Sources: CBS News, PEOPLE, Cracked