What Jonathan Joss’ alleged shooter told police

By Lisa Respers France, Dianne Gallagher, Devon Sayers and Andy Buck, CNN

(CNN) — The man charged with murdering actor Jonathan Joss told police “I shot him,” according to a police report detailing the incident.

Joss, 59, was fatally shot near his home on Sunday, according to police in San Antonio, Texas.

A witness, whose name is redacted in the report, told police she drove Joss to the site of his previous home to check his mail. Joss had said previously the home had been destroyed by fire.

The witness said after arriving at the property, the suspect, Sigfredo Ceja, pulled in behind her before getting out of his car and beginning to argue with Joss.

The witness told police she heard Ceja tell Joss he had a gun and would shoot. The incident report describes the weapon as a rifle.

Ceja has been arrested on suspicion of murder. An investigation is ongoing.

CNN has attempted to reach Ceja for comment.

San Antonio Police call for service logs show numerous calls to both the addresses of Joss and Ceja, who was his neighbor, over the past year. Officers were called to Joss’s home dozens of times, in some instances multiple times in a single day. Many of the calls are characterized as “Disturbance Neighbor.” Other calls appear to be welfare checks to the home that property records show is owned by Joss.

‘A terrible tragedy’

Police were dispatched Sunday to a location on Dorsey Drive for a reported shooting in progress, where officers found Joss “near the roadway of the location” and “attempted life saving measures,” authorities said.

The actor was pronounced dead by emergency service responders.

Joss’ husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales told the Associated Press they were approached and threatened by a man with a gun while checking the mail at Joss’s home, which in January was damaged by a fire that also killed their three dogs.

“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 said.

He and Joss, who married in February, had previously faced “openly homophobic” harassment, de Gonzales said. The person who killed Joss yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire, he added.

“He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other,” de Gonzales said.

“Despite online claims of this being a hate crime, currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that the Mr. Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation,” San Antonio police said in a statement posted to social media on Monday night.

Joss was known for his performance in “Parks & Recreation” as a tribal elder of the Wamapoke Native American tribe and owner of the Wamapoke Casino.

His co-star Nick Offerman has spoken out about Joss’s death.

“The cast has been texting together about it all day and we’re just heartbroken,” Offerman said in a statement to People. “Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy.”

CNN has reached out to representatives for Offerman for additional comment.

Beyond his work on “Parks and Recreation,” Joss voiced the character of John Redcorn on “King of the Hill.” Some of his other credits include appearances in “Ray Donovan,” “Tulsa King” and the 2016 film “The Magnificent Seven.”

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