SAN ANTONIO – Call it a hunch, but Daniela Ruano said she felt compelled to pick up her cellphone and start recording the actions of her former next-door neighbor, actor Jonathan Joss, Sunday evening.
She recorded a video of the 59-year-old, seemingly in an agitated state, about a half hour before he was shot and killed.
“I walked outside and he’s walking up and down with a pitchfork,” Ruano said. “I knew something was going to happen. I wanted to call the police, but he hadn’t done anything.”
>> What we know about the death of Jonathan Joss in San Antonio, ongoing feud with suspected shooter
The video Ruano shared with KSAT 12 News, which can be viewed below, showed Joss pacing back and forth in front of her home, with a pitchfork in hand.
At times, he can be heard cussing and yelling loudly, seemingly to anyone within earshot.
“You’re looking at me for what? I’m walking down the street. I’m rehearsing. I make movies, man,” Joss shouts.
Although Joss said he was acting, Ruano said her fear of him was real.
She said for decades, her family and others living in the 200 block of Dorsey Street have had tense encounters with him.
“He was always yelling, like, at the top of his lungs,” Ruano said. “He would say that all the children on this street were going to die, and that we were all going to go to hell because we’re sinners and God is on his side.”
>> SAPD records detail 60+ calls made to Jonathan Joss’ home since 2023, dispute with suspected killer
The actor, known for providing the voice of John Redcorn in the animated series “King of the Hill,” had been living in his family’s home in that South Side neighborhood for years.
However, after the home burned down earlier this year, neighbors said he would only visit occasionally, to check on his property and collect his mail.
Witnesses told San Antonio police Joss was there to do just that Sunday evening when he was shot dead.
They arrested another neighbor, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, on a murder charge.
A police report states he admitted to killing Joss.
Other police reports obtained by KSAT also show officers had been called to the street numerous times for clashes between the two men. In all, 66 calls were made for various reasons to Joss’ home since September 2023, records show.
“I think this whole thing happened ‘cause (Ceja Alvarez) was just pushed to his limit,” Ruano said.
Despite social media posts to the contrary, police said they have no evidence at this time indicating Joss, who was openly gay, was killed due to his sexual orientation.
However, SAPD said Wednesday that the case remains under investigation.
“This whole thing was horrible. No one deserves to be shot. But that’s not what this was,” Ruano said, asserting that the shooting was not a hate crime.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ceja Alvarez was released from the Bexar County jail. He posted a $200,000 bond on Tuesday night.
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